October 19, 2026

Doomsday Data Centers


Doomsday Data Centers
The search for the perfect doomsday data center turns to abandoned underground mines in the Arctic. Timur Akhmetov, @lonely_free_ranger

​Data centers have become high-profile targets in the wake of Russia's war on Ukraine.  In a sweeping counteroffensive, Ukrainian drones struck several Russian data centers in October, causing disruptions to Russian digital infrastructure and AI research. The conflict has intensified the risk to these critical infrastructures, as each side consistently ramps up attacks on the other’s facilities.

Valeriy Ermakov is the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Rostelecom, a state-owned monopoly acting as Russia’s largest telecommunications provider. His recent comments on the need to create a secure "doomsday" center accelerated interest in isolated sites.

The idea was picked up by the Project Office for Arctic Development (PORA), a Russian think tank, and its member Alexander Vorotnikov. Vorotnikov advocated several potential homes for Ermakov’s doomsday data center.

Tactfully sidestepping the obvious, Vorotnikov insisted on maximum-security centers: “As the situation shows, if data centers are not properly secure, then problems will arise.”

Underground Arctic mines in Murmansk Oblast were among his first recommendations. The open-pit mines of Vorkuta in the far north of the Komi Republic were also shortlisted. Both sites are strategically located along the Northern Sea Route and could be used to monitor marine traffic and ice conditions.

​In Southern Siberia’s Kemerovo Oblast, governor Ilya Seredyuk offered the region’s coal mines as a perfect candidate for a data center home.

Kemerovo Oblast has massive coal reserves and an abundance of depleted quarries. The Russian Ministry of Energy also considered this idea, since coal from the region can fuel the new centers and reduce transport costs.

​While a next generation of Russian data centers in far-flung regions has yet to break ground, the sites share one thing in common: They are far from Ukraine. Despite experts touting the efficiency of cold environments for data center performance, the biggest reason for building data centers in abandoned mines remains unstated but obvious: they will be out of reach of Ukrainian drone strikes.

You Might Also Like

Russia's AI Ambitions Under Fire
  • October 22, 2026

Russia's AI Ambitions Under Fire

Ukrainian drones hit Yandex's supercomputers, potentially setting Russia's AI ambitions back years and putting it behind Kazakhstan.
Russia's Starlink Ambitions
  • October 08, 2026

Russia's Starlink Ambitions

Russia is racing to build its own Starlink as battlefield connectivity becomes critical. But delayed satellites, sanctions, and dependence on state infrastructure threaten its plans.
Vanished Land
  • November 07, 2024

Vanished Land

A Russian island in the Arctic disappeared from satellite images.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

Survival Russian
February 01, 2009

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.

Steppe
July 15, 2022

Steppe

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.

Moscow and Muscovites
November 26, 2013

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 

How Russia Got That Way
September 20, 2025

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.

Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

White Magic
June 01, 2021

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas
October 01, 2013

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.

 
At the Circus
January 01, 2013

At the Circus

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.

About Us

Russian Life is the 31-year-old publication of an award-winning publishing house that also creates books, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955