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The exterior of the headquarters of Russian internet search engine company Yandex in Moscow, Russia, on May 16, 2017 (local time). On the 8th, Yandex stated that a fire broke out at its data center following a drone strike. / AFP, Yonhap

An attack on a Russian data center disrupted ride-hailing and delivery services in Kazakhstan and drove up fares on alternative platforms, bringing the issue of dependence on local digital infrastructure back to the fore.

While the Kazakh government is pushing to diversify international telecommunications networks, analysts say it is practically impossible to alter an internet connectivity structure heavily concentrated in Russia in the short term.

According to The Astana Times on the 12th, major services including ride-hailing and deliveries experienced disruptions in Kazakhstan after a Yandex data center located in Russia's Vladimir Oblast sustained damage from a drone strike the previous day.

Yandex, Russia's leading information technology (IT) firm, operates an array of digital services spanning search engines, ride-hailing, food delivery, maps, and cloud computing.

Most post-Soviet states, including Kazakhstan, rely on Yandex platforms as a core fixture of their daily digital lives.

As service disruptions unfolded, users flocked to alternative platforms, triggering a sharp spike in fares over a short span.

On the 11th, order volumes for InDrive, a U.S. ride-hailing and delivery platform, surged to roughly triple their typical levels, and some users reportedly faced taxi fares up to nearly three times higher than usual.

Kazakhstan maintains a high degree of reliance on Russia in the IT sector. Data released this month by the Caspian Policy Center in the U.S. shows that approximately 95% of Kazakhstan's international internet traffic passes through 17 cross-border fiber-optic cables linked to Russia.

While some cables connect with China and neighboring Central Asian nations, international internet connectivity routes remain heavily concentrated in Russia.

Kazakhstan has been pursuing alternative telecommunications networks to reduce its reliance on Russia. A prominent initiative is an undersea fiber-optic cable crossing the Caspian Sea to link Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

The vision aims to secure a data transmission route leading to Europe without transiting Russia, yet this measure alone appears unlikely to resolve fundamental challenges.

Even after new lines become operational, their effectiveness will vary depending on actual traffic capacity, utilization rates, and integration with existing networks.

Given that replacing legacy transit networks through Russia will be difficult in the short term, securing the independence of data centers and service operation infrastructure alongside route diversification remains an essential task.

                                                                                                             Kim Min-gyu