The Russian government may allocate 161 million rubles ($5.28 million) in 2011 for the development of a national operating system in a bid to reduce the country's dependence on Microsoft, a Russian business daily said on Wednesday.
A further 490 million rubles could be invested in the project from 2011-2013, Vedemosti daily said, citing a draft federal target program.
The project will allow the government to regulate the security of information systems, said Alexander Chachava, president of information technology company Leta Group.
The target program does not include earlier mentioned plans for the development of a national Internet search engine, aimed at stimulating the development of domestic technology.
Instead the draft outlines funding for the development of an internal governmental search engine, which would allow officials to search for documents on ministry databases.
However, specialists told the paper that the project to develop a national search engine is not dead and could find another source of funding.
MOSCOW, October 27 (RIA Novosti)