Construction of data centers in Russia

Data centers in Russia

Main article: Data center (Russian market) Commercial data centers

2025

Key Point will build a new data center in the Sverdlovsk region for ₽3,2 billion

The Key Point group of companies will receive project funding from VTB for the construction of a data processing center in the Craft industrial park in the Sverdlovsk region. Investments in the project will amount to ₽3,2 billion. This became known on February 19, 2025 from the press service of the bank. Read more here.

Rosatom is building a data center for 1000 racks in the Nizhny Novgorod region

In early February 2024, the State Corporation Rosatom spoke about plans to build a data processing center for a thousand racks in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Its goal is to reduce the shortage of capacity among systemically important enterprises and subjects of critical information infrastructure. Read more here.

How the Russian data center market will develop in 2025 - TA opinions

According to the analytical company iKS-Consulting, in 2024, about 12 thousand new racks were commissioned in Russian data centers, which corresponds to the level of a year ago. TAdviser talked with its participants and experts about what to expect from the domestic data center market in 2025.

The company RTK-DPC (a subsidiary of Rostelecom), as its representative told TAdviser, is going to complete all existing projects in 2025. In particular, we are talking about a data center in Udomla for 820 racks, the third stage of the data center in Yekaterinburg for 214 racks, as well as the opening of a new site in Nizhny Novgorod with a capacity of 400 racks.

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Фото: Freepik

Selectel will continue to develop the new data center site in Moscow - the commissioning of the first stage of the Yurlovsky data center is scheduled for the summer of 2025, Ilya Mikhailov, director of the company's data center department, told TAdviser. The data center will be designed for 2000 racks with a supplied capacity of 20 MW. Mikhailov also said that in the third quarter of 2024, Selectel launched 112 new racks at a site in the Leningrad Region. The company expects that these capacities will help it grow its business at the level of 30% per year.

Rosatom launched two large data centers in 2024: Moscow-2 and Innopolis, and in 2025 the state corporation intends to continue filling existing data centers and bringing them to design capacity. In addition, Rosatom plans to continue work on new projects, in particular the second stage of the Xelent data center in St. Petersburg (its capacity will exceed 2 thousand racks). At the end of 2024, the design documentation of the data center was approved by the city Committee for Urban Planning and Architecture.

RTK-DPC believes that in 2025 the market will face a tangible shortage of capacity: the demand for data center services will only increase, which will contribute to a significant increase in prices.

Stanislav Mirin, a leading consultant at iKS-Consulting, doubts the sharp rise in price of data center services in Moscow and St. Petersburg. According to the expert, the balance of supply and demand in Moscow will remain with some excess of potential demand. The planned commissioning of new data centers in St. Petersburg should significantly reduce the level of shortage of colocation services in the city, which arose several years ago, but potential demand will also continue to outstrip supply, Mirin said in a conversation with TAdviser. He listed several trends in the Russian data center market in 2025:

• data growth, digitalization of business and everyday life. Data center market growth in money by 25%;
• maintaining high demand for large consignments of stable seats in commercial data centers in the Moscow region.
• the entry of the commercial data center market into the maturity stage. Entry into the market of professional developers (PNK, Monarch).
• rising market concentration in the hands of leaders;
• lack of highly qualified personnel and teams for the construction and management of data centers.

According to Sergei Paukov, director of the department of engineering and multimedia systems at CROC, in Russia, the implementation of data center construction projects is complicated by an increase in the key rate, an unpredictable exchange rate, logistics features in the event of the use of foreign equipment, as well as the lack of relevant sites for construction in the Moscow region, in which the vast majority of data centers are concentrated. Despite this, data centers continue to be built, he added.

LinxMaria Markova, Commercial Director, is absolutely confident that prices for data center services in Russia will increase, given the increase in equipment costs, maintenance and labor. Mass construction of new data centers will slow down, as a result - the shortage of racks in the market will continue, at least remaining at the same level, Markova predicts.

Among other expected trends in 2025, the commercial director of Linx named the reduction in customers' data centers of capital expenditures and migration to service models, for example, to clouds. An increase in the demand for electricity for data center racks, including those used to operate AI-based systems, is also likely, she added.

As Stanislav Mirin from iKS-Consulting noted, market participants hoped for measures of state support for the industry, including the development and implementation of mechanisms for obtaining a subsidized credit rate for data center projects. As of the beginning of 2025, concessional financing mechanisms were not included in the national project "Data Economics and Digital Transformation of the State." Thus, participants in the commercial data center market have to rely on their own forces in the implementation of projects of new data centers, the analyst summed up.

Appeal of the regions of the Russian Federation to the Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development for support for the construction of safe data centers

At the end of January 2025, it became known that the first deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Construction Artem Sheikin sent a letter to the Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development Engineering of the Russian Federation with a proposal to consider the possibility of providing support to the regions for the implementation of large infrastructure projects in the IT sphere. We are talking primarily about the construction of data processing centers (data centers).

It is said that the volume of information generated in Russia is rapidly growing, for the storage and processing of which large-scale data centers are required. In addition, the number of government information systems (GIS) and industry platform solutions requiring a secure and sustainable IT infrastructure is increasing. In such a situation, the development of regional data centers becomes critical.

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Фото: Freepik

However, as noted, many Russian regions cannot implement large projects in the field of IT, including building safe data centers, due to the lack of federal support. According to Sheikin, in some areas, including Amurskaya, there are no commercial data centers. This makes it impossible to place critical information infrastructure objects on cloud platforms, especially in terms of ensuring the protection of GIS information, since such projects are high-cost for regional budgets. For example, a data center with an area of ​ ​ 100 square meters for small businesses is estimated to cost 50-100 million rubles. And the cost of building a data center for a large company or a large department can reach 1 billion rubles or more.

Against this background, Sheikin, in a letter addressed to Deputy Head of the Ministry of Digital Development Alexander Shoytov, proposes to consider the possibility of grant support for the regions for the implementation of large infrastructure IT projects. This is expected to help partially solve the shortage of data centers.^[1]

2024

Minstroy approved the rules for the design of buildings of data centers in Russia

At the end of December 2024, the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation announced the approval of the Code of Rules "Buildings and Structures of Data Processing Centers. Design Rules. " The document, as specified in the department, applies to the design of buildings, structures and premises of data processing centers designed to accommodate information technology equipment, network and telecommunications equipment. The document also provides the possibility of providing services in the field of data storage, processing and transmission, the ministry emphasized.

The Code of Practice establishes the requirements for the design of data center buildings taking into account their functional purpose, energy efficiency, fire safety and resistance to external impacts. The document spells out the norms governing space-planning solutions, engineering support, as well as requirements for environmental safety and energy efficiency.

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Фото: Freepik

According to the approved rules, when designing data center buildings, it is necessary to take into account the features of the land plot, including environmental conditions, transport accessibility and protection against possible flooding. Zoning inside the building should provide for the placement of machine rooms, telecommunication areas and office premises that ensure uninterrupted operation of the equipment.

The document also defines requirements for design solutions. These include durability, tightness and protection against progressive collapse. Special attention is paid to fire safety: automatic fire extinguishing systems, as well as evacuation routes that meet the established standards, should be provided in the data center buildings.

The regulations include a section on engineering systems that regulates the design of power, ventilation and cooling systems. All engineering solutions shall be redundant to minimize downtime risks in case of emergency.

As emphasized in the Ministry of Construction, the new set of rules was developed taking into account modern requirements for the reliability and safety of infrastructure facilities. The document will become mandatory when designing new data centers, as well as when modernizing existing facilities.^[2]

State order accounted for 50% of the data center construction market in the Russian Federation

In 2024, the costs of state organizations in Russia for the construction of data centers (data centers) amounted to about 60 billion rubles. About the same amount was spent on the creation of commercial data centers. Thus, the state order accounted for 50% of the corresponding market, which became known on December 23, 2024.

According to Sheets the newspaper "," referring to information received from participants in the Russian IT industry, it is the public sector that is the driver of the development of domestic data centers. In particular, in 2024 data centers , "," Rosatom the federal data center of the MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS Russian Federation, a single data center, Ministry of Natural Resources the computing power of the government Moscow and other objects were put into operation. At the same time, state organizations continue to transfer their infrastructure from commercial data centers to departmental ones. Moreover, the public sector is increasing capacity both at the federal and regional levels. The director of interaction with the company's bodies state power "" RTK-DPC Dmitry Panyshev notes that the services of government agencies are increasingly becoming digital, data arrays are accumulating and IT systems are updated for their analysis and storage. This is important in the light of the active import substitution carried out in the conditions of the formed geopolitical situation.

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Фото: Freepik

Along with the public sector, as noted, large companies are developing their own data centers, which is due to the lack of computing power and the need to process large amounts of information. The construction of data centers, in particular, is carried out by Rostelecom, the largest commercial and state banks, leaders in the mining industry, etc.

At the same time, market participants call a number of restraining factors. One of them is the high key rate of the Bank of Russia, which is 21% as of the end of 2024. Due to the high cost of loans, the payback period for projects for the construction of data centers is increased by 2-2.5 times. As a result, some companies are revising plans to create data centers or completely suspending the implementation of such projects. The construction of data centers is a capital-intensive process, and a high key rate is a barrier to attracting additional investments.

Prior to the rate increase, payback periods ranged from 5 to 7 years, and now the implementation of projects for the construction of data centers with a high level of reliability can pay off for more than 10 years. Today, the minimum volume of lending to the industry is 100 billion rubles for the implementation of projects in the public sector and the mass segment and the construction of high-load facilities with GPU for AI, says Panyshev.

Another obstacle is the problems with finding territories for the construction of data centers. Almost the entire volume of data centers is concentrated in Moscow and there are not enough stable places. In particular, according to iKS-Consulting, the capital region in 2024 accounts for 76% of the total number of racks in commercial data centers. It is noted that any data center being built is sold out at the stage of completion of construction by an average of almost half, that is, even before its commissioning.

In addition, the need to increase the capacity of data centers is growing. If in 2015 the average power per rack was 5 kW, then by the end of 2024 the figure increased to 7-7.5 kW. At the same time, the majority of old data centers - they operate for 10 years or more, and therefore often need modernization. In general, analysts at iKS-Consulting predict that in 2024 the number of resistance committees in commercial data centers in Russia will grow by 17% and reach 82,400.^[3]

A-Date will build a data center in Zheleznogorsk for ₽290 million

The A-Date company, a new resident of the Zheleznogorsk advanced development territory, is investing ₽290 million in the creation of a data processing center in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The conclusion of the agreement in mid-December 2024 was announced by the press service of the managing company TOR Atom-TOR. Read more here

Sber and T-Bank complained about problems with finding territories for new data centers

On November 13, 2024, the largest Russian banks announced difficulties in finding sites for the construction of data centers. The heads of credit institutions voiced this problem at the FI Day conference. Blockchain: on the cusp of a financial era. "

According to Vedomosti, the chairman of the board of Sberbank German Gref noted that the bank does not consider sites with a capacity of less than 200 MW, preferring facilities of 300-400 MW, which is comparable to the consumption of a nuclear power plant unit.

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Фото: Unsplash

Stanislav Bliznyuk, Chairman of the Board of T-Bank, confirmed the difficulties in finding territories even for the construction of two 50 MW data centers, pointing out problems with the availability of capacity and acceptable tariffs.

According to the analytical company iKS-Consulting, in 2023 the 76% of the Russian data center market was concentrated in Moscow - 53,400 racks with a maximum supplied capacity of 540 MW. St. Petersburg accounts for 9.3% of the market (7300 stands), the rest of the regions - 14.8% (9610 stands).

The founder of the company "DCs Kvadrat" Alexander Martynyuk explains that the main criteria for choosing sites are the availability of capacity, transport accessibility for employees and the presence of a connection to the main communication channels.

Maxim Oreshkin, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Russia, warned of a possible shortage of electricity in the Russian economy in the next 5-10 years, linking this to the development of digital technologies and cryptocurrency mining.

In 2024, $300 billion of investments were allocated for the development of generative artificial intelligence in the world with a market volume of $67 billion, according to estimates by Tsifrum. Sberbank, which owns four data centers with more than 63 thousand servers, continues to increase computing power for the development of artificial intelligence technologies.

Dmitry Gorkavenko, Director of Business Development at iKS-Consulting, predicts the growth of regional data centers by 27.1% in 2024, while an increase of 17% is expected in Moscow, and 5% in St. Petersburg^[4]

The Ministry of Digital Development will allocate tens of billions of rubles to finance soft loans for the construction of data centers

On November 7, 2024, it became known that the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation intends to find additional sources of financing for soft loans for the construction of new data centers (data centers) in the country. The demand for the services of such sites continues to grow rapidly against the backdrop of the rapid development of artificial intelligence, the expansion of cloud infrastructure and the digitalization of various industries.

It is noted that the measure for preferential lending to the construction of data centers was not included in the national project "Data Economics and Digital Transformation of the State," which replaces the Digital Economy program. However, according to the head of the Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development Maksut Shadayev, the department intends to discuss the issue of what sources of funds can be used to implement the initiative. The fact is that with a high rate of the Bank of Russia, operators will not be able to maintain the necessary pace of development of the data center infrastructure. Earlier, the department proposed to allocate 32.1 billion rubles from the budget for preferential lending to the construction of data centers in 2025-2030.

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Фото: Freepik

This is exactly the position that we did not get into the base of the upcoming national project - preferential loans for the construction of data centers. We have it on the waiting list, and we will now discuss what additional sources we can use in order to finance it, "Interfax quoted Shadayev as saying.

The Ministry of Digital Development also stressed that the opportunities for the development of data centers are limited due to the increase in the key rate. As of November 8, 2024, it is 21%. This creates certain difficulties, since all large infrastructure facilities are mainly built with borrowed funds.

Of course, with such a rate, in general, it can probably continue to be built, but, of course, it will raise tariffs in this market in general. No matter how much we want it, "Shadayev said.[5]

Agreement on the construction of 15 data centers for 35 billion rubles in Komi

On September 13, 2024, the Komi authorities announced a large-scale project to build 15 data centers (data centers) in the region. The corresponding agreement was signed by the head of the republic Vladimir Uyba and the general director of LLC UK Energoresurs-K Alexander Istomin. The total amount of investments in the creation of data centers is estimated at 35 billion rubles. Read more here.

Large companies in the Russian Federation do not have enough computing power on the market, so they started building their data centers

Russian large companies began to actively build their own data centers (DPCs) due to the lack of computing power in the market. This became known in September 2024. This trend became noticeable after the owners of commercial data centers were unable to meet the growing needs of banks, industrial enterprises and marketplaces.

According to the data provided by the analytical company iKS-Consulting, since 2012, there has been a decrease in the number of corporate data centers under construction, but in 2024 this trend has changed. Dmitry Zheltkov, director of the IT Solutions commercial department at Systeme Electric, said that companies are beginning to actively build their own centers - from large to medium-sized - and modernize existing sites. The growing interest in the development of its own infrastructure was confirmed by representatives of such companies as Wildberries, Gazprom, Sber and Severstal.

According to Vedomosti, the representative of Wildberries noted that the market for commercial data centers cannot cover the needs of the company, so it was decided to build its own data center in Elektrostal, as well as two additional facilities in Dubna and Naro-Fominsk, the launch of which is scheduled for 2025. The construction of its own data centers turned out to be more profitable from an economic point of view than renting, which is due to a constant increase in the cost of renting due to a shortage of capacity.

According to a representative of Gazprom, the company also does not use commercial data centers and is building a large center for 5,000 racks in Veliky Novgorod. This approach, in their opinion, provides greater flexibility and efficiency in the use of computing power, which is especially important for industries with a high load on the IT infrastructure.^[6]

Rosatom became the leader in the volume of construction of data centers

In 2024, the state corporation Rosatom became the leader in terms of commissioning new racks in domestic data centers. The demand for data center services in Russia is growing, which is associated with the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), interest in data centers from investors, technology parks, development companies, as well as the continuing expansion of the cloud services segment. This is stated in a study by ComNews Research, the results of which were published in early August 2024.

During the first and second quarters of 2024, ROSATOM fulfilled its annual plan to deploy 4,890 server racks. Their total number at the operator reached 6570. In second place in terms of volume constructionsdata centers is Rostelecom DPC the GC "," which in 2024 will put into operation 2058 racks. Half of them (1024) will appear in the cluster "-Moscow Ostapovsky," another 820 - at the site "Udomlya," and 214 - in. Yekaterinburg Closes the top three LLC "Ixelereit" with plans to install 1990 racks. Next come (Filanko LLC 1206 racks), Stack Telecom LLC (309), (72), LLC "Imaqliq" etc.

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Фото: Unsplash

In general, during 2024, commercial providers in Russia intend to commission approximately 11.7 thousand new racks. Thus, their total number will be about 76 thousand. Higher growth rates, as ComNews Research notes, were recorded only in 2023, when more than 13 thousand new racks appeared. The leaders of 2023 were Rostelecom DPC LLC (5824 racks), DC 3Data LLC (3863) and Ixelereit LLC (836).

Arseny Fomin, Project Manager of the Data Center of Svyaz VSD LLC (Linx Datacenter), emphasizes that AI and cloud services segments are increasingly influencing the Russian data center market. Daria Aleksankina, CEO of C3 Solutions LLC, calls increasing demand for flexible and scalable solutions an important growth factor^[7].

32.1 billion rubles were allocated for preferential loans for the construction of data centers in the budget of the Russian Federation

Within the framework of the national project "Data Economics," the federal budget of Russia for the period from 2025 to 2030 provides for the allocation of 32.1 billion rubles for concessional lending to the construction of data processing centers (data centers). This became known on July 5, 2024 from the presentation of the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation.

According to Interfax, this funding is part of the federal project "Support for new developments of software solutions and their implementation in the sectors of the economy." In addition, the project involves the allocation of 36 billion rubles for soft loans to developers and customers for the implementation of domestic software solutions, as well as 20.3 billion rubles for the provision of soft loans for the development of specialized capacities in the field of artificial intelligence and grants to developers for access to them.

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Фото: Freepik

The Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media Maksut Shadayev previously noted the need to provide preferential loans for the construction of data centers. This solution is designed to stimulate the development of domestic infrastructure for data storage and processing.

The initiative to create a national project "Data Economics" was put forward by President Vladimir Putin in September 2023. The government was instructed to approve the project for the period until 2030, with the preparation of the main parameters by June 1, 2024.

iKS-Consulting experts note that the implementation of comprehensive measures to support the data center industry will increase domestic demand for data storage and processing infrastructure, as well as increase the investment attractiveness of the Russian sector. At the same time, market participants express hope for maintaining market principles for the development of the industry and ensuring healthy competition.

The development of the domestic infrastructure of data centers has acquired particular relevance in the context of global disruptions in supply chains caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, as well as subsequent local problems in Russia associated with the departure of Western companies and the introduction of sanctions in 2022. These factors led to a disruption of the established system of equipment supply through the network of distributors. As a result, there was a transition to a parallel import system and an increase in the share of equipment from Russian and Chinese manufacturers.^[8]

The Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation will extend preferential crediting for construction of data centers

At the end of May 2024 Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation , they announced plans to extend preferential lending to the sphere. constructionsdata centers More. here

2023

The largest data center construction companies

The total revenue of the 20 largest Russian data center construction and modernization solutions providers in 2023 amounted to ₽121 billion, an increase of 53% compared to 2022. This became known in January 2025.

According to CNews, the top twenty leaders included: Rubytech (₽35,456 billion), Jet Infosystems (₽21,928 billion), Free Engineering Technologies (₽14,449 billion), Basic Solutions (₽13,551 billion), K2Tech (₽7,682 billion), DataDome (₽6,486 billion), GreenMDC (₽5,353 billion), C3 Solutions (₽4,739 billion), Innostage (₽2,743 billion) Defense "Telecom (₽1,848 billion).

In the structure of revenue of companies, the largest share is occupied by projects to create an IT infrastructure - ₽40,5 billion, followed by engineering systems with an indicator of ₽32 billion and solutions for physical security - ₽10,2 billion. The main growth driver was the implementation of the import substitution program.

Alexey Zotov, Head of IT Infrastructure at K2Tekh, noted that the Russian server market is developing dynamically, reducing the gap from foreign counterparts, and domestic manufacturers are already offering equipment based on the fourth and fifth generations of Intel processors.

Some of the major integrators and vendors, including Softline, Lanit, CROC, Systematics, ICS Holding, T1, Bulat and Aquarius, did not provide revenue data under the anti-sanction policy, which could affect the final arrangement of companies in the rating.

TDataCEO Stanislav Lazukov pointed out the difficulties in the implementation of projects due to the high key rate. At the same time, Vsevolod Vorobyov, head of the data center of the network solutions center of Jet Infosystems, noted the lack of existing capacities of commercial data centers to meet growing demand.

The segment is expected to maintain high growth rates in connection with the implementation of the national project "Data Economics," which starts in 2025. An additional growth factor will be the need to update data centers commissioned in the 2010s to meet modern energy efficiency requirements.^[9]

Minstroy has developed rules for the design of data centers

On July 17, 2023, the Ministry of Construction, Housing and Communal Services of the Russian Federation (Minstroy) published a set of rules "Buildings and structures of data processing centers. Design Rules. " The document was developed in order to increase the level of safety of data centers and reduce their negative impact on the environment.

The set of rules applies to the design of buildings and structures of data centers, as well as data center premises in buildings for other purposes. At the same time, the document does not affect non-capital modular and mobile buildings of data centers. The document solves the problems of improving the technical regulation system, in particular:

• adoption of new regulatory and technical documents in the construction sector, necessary for the phase-out of the use of outdated technologies by designers and builders;
• increase of safety level of works on design, installation, start-up, commissioning and commissioning and maintenance of internal engineering and technical support systems of DPC buildings and structures;
• energy efficiency;
• reduction of the level of heat loss in buildings and structures and optimization of technical solutions when developing designs of internal engineering and technical support systems for buildings and structures.

The Ministry of Construction has published a set of rules "Buildings and structures of data processing centers. Design Rules "

It is said that when designing a data center, depending on class and capacity, additional rooms and facilities may be provided in addition to process areas. These include service and technical rooms, IT equipment preparation rooms, auxiliary and warehouse premises of spares (spare parts, tools and accessories), premises of operating and dispatch centers, administrative, office and household premises for personnel.

When placing a data center, according to the rules, it is necessary to exclude harmful effects on residential premises. At the same time, the buildings of data centers themselves must be located taking into account protective distances in relation to neighboring enterprises or other facilities with technological processes that are sources of emissions of harmful corrosive, unpleasant-smelling substances or dust.^[10]"

2022: The third standard in the series GOST R "Data processing centers. Engineering Infrastructure "

On June 2, 2022, the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology (Rosstandart) issued an order (No. 445-st) approving the national standard of the Russian Federation "Data Processing Centers. Engineering infrastructure. Classification. " This was announced on June 7, 2022 to TAdviser by representatives of the Association of Data Center Industry Participants (Data Center). Read more here.

2021: 3data plans to build data centers in residential buildings

In early March 2021, it became known about the plans of 3data to build small data centers on the territory of commercial and residential real estate. To do this, the company, according to its general director Ilya Hala, is negotiating with large developers, including Samolet, Pioneer, MIC Group, Etalon, Landmark, FGC Group, Coldy and PNK Group. Read more here.

2020: Creation of a network of data centers in the north of Karelia

At the end of October 2020 Russia Vladimir Putin , the President approved the Development Strategy of the Russian Arctic zone Federation, one of the components of which was the creation of a network in the north of Karelia. data centers More. here

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