It’s no secret that Russia is slowly working towards avoiding as much Western technology as possible and developing its own, and the latest effort seems to be related to video games. On December 25, Anton Gorelkin, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, some information on a domestic video game console produced by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, as reported by . The theoretical console has an Elbrus processor and runs Aurora or Alt Linux, both Russian forks of the popular Linux operating system.

According to TechSpotthe Elbrus processor was developed by the Moscow Center of SPARC Technologies and is primarily designed for defense, critical infrastructure and other applications. This processor is not up to what Intel, AMD and Arm are making today, and it certainly won’t reach the level of power of the PS5 or Xbox. Despite the weak chipset, Gorelkin emphasized that the console is not designed to play ports of old games, but to play “home video game products.” Perhaps, this means that Russia also needs its own developer community to design these games.

There’s also another console called Fog Play in development, but it’s more of a cloud-gaming device. Users with high-end computers can rent them to Fog Play owners, who play games on these computers through the cloud.

These potential consoles are just one aspect of Russia’s broader technological sovereignty plans. Since its invasion of Ukraine and subsequent Western sanctions, Russia has been trying to make this a reality – but makes it difficult.

The adoption of Astra Linux by government, intelligence, military and even educational computers is another effort by Russia to develop its own technology. To this end, Russia is also trying to replace the file and website scanner VirusTotal (owned by Google) with its own Multiscanner platform for fear of infiltration by the US government.

Despite this progress, Russia is still dependent on Chinese technology. Chinese smartphones are popular there, and Chinese electronics and dual-use technology even in the Middle Kingdom they are in the US.

Russia is unlikely to achieve true technological independence, in video gaming or other important areas, because it relies heavily on China and does not have the capability to produce PS5 or Xbox-level chips. The two Russian video game consoles serve as a good example of the challenges the country faces due to its poor relations with many of the world’s superpowers. Just as the Elbrus processor will never compete against the best consoles, Russia will likely continue to struggle for technological sovereignty.