Previous research on Russia showed that due to its complex and immense territory, economic and cultural development, historical traditions, professional journalistic practices, policy measures, legislation, even geographical and climatic conditions (e.g. Dunas, 2013; Svitich, Smirnova, & Shkondin, 2018; Zorin, 2018; Vartanova, 2019; Vyrkovsky et al, 2019), the country represents an interesting case for the analysis of different kinds of inequalities – socio-economic, educational, professional and others. This presentation contributes to the discussion arounddigital inequalitiesin the context in Russia (e.g. Vartanova, 2002, 2018; Deviatko, 2013; Nagirnaya, 2015; Volchenko, 2016; Gladkova, & Ragnedda, 2020) and draws linkages between ethnic diversity of the eight federal districts of Russia and their technological development (access and use of ICTs, digital literacy, etc.) – something that has rarely been in the spotlight of the scholars’ attention until now.
Our study shows that although there is no universal correlation between ethnic composition of the regions and the level of their technological advancement, regions where Russians constitute the majority (i.e. Central and Northwestern) more often tend to be the country's leaders in terms of technological development. Following up on this, we use purposive sample of 400 Internet users based in Russia and show how the level of their digital capital varies depending on ethnicity (here we will distinguish between two large groups – Russians and non-Russians, based on self-identification of survey participants) and place of living. Here we follow the model proposed by Ragnedda and Ruiu (2020) and earlier tested in another national context (Ragnedda, Ruiu, & Addeo, 2019). Results of the digital capital study, despite being indicative, show that those belonging to the ethnic majority (in our case Russians) and those living in big cities tend to have a higher level of digital capital. Given the fact that digital and social inequalities tend to reinforce each other, we argue that those who are more socially advantaged tend to get the most out of the Internet, further reinforcing their social position by using ICTs.
We argue that in case of multiethnic and multicultural Russian setting, Internet and ICTs play an important role in building democratic society, where diverse ethnic, religious, cultural, linguistic groups enjoy equal freedom of expression and access to information, possess digital skills and media literacy, and are able to use this freedom in both offline and online communication. In a situation when any group of people is excluded from cyberspace due to lack of equipment, weak access to the Internet or lack of competences and media literacy to use ICTs, one can hardly speak of a proportional representation of different views and voices in cyberspace. Moreover, safeguarding equal access and representation of ethnic groups in online space contributes to saving cultural-intellectual identities (Shi-xu, 2009: 41) of people, which is particularly important in case of multiethnic and multicultural societies such as Russian society.