The insurance market in Russia is facing an unprecedented overhaul of terms across one of the key segments of digital infrastructure. According to the business daily Kommersant, published on November 13, 2026, the cost of data center property policies has increased tenfold or more over the course of several months. While in the first half of 2026 the insurance premium stood at 0.03–0.06% of the insured property's value, after Ukrainian strikes on critical digital infrastructure facilities began, rates jumped to 1–5%. In individual cases, according to expert estimates, the price surge exceeded the 100-fold threshold. Such a spike makes insuring IT infrastructure facilities economically unfeasible for a number of companies and forces them to reconsider their risk structures.
Chronology of Strikes on Data Centers
The first documented attacks by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles on Russian data centers occurred in October 2026. According to available information, targets belonging to Russia's three largest technology and financial companies—Yandex, Sberbank, and VK—ended up in the impact zone. These strikes were a logical continuation of an earlier practice when the Russian military struck data centers located on Ukrainian territory. Thus, both sides of the conflict have included digital infrastructure facilities in the list of legitimate targets, which has radically changed risk assessments in the insurance market.
Response of the National Reinsurer
Against the backdrop of a sharp increase in the number of incidents, the Russian National Reinsurance Company (RNRC), owned by the Central Bank of Russia, significantly tightened data center reinsurance conditions in October 2026. The baseline rate for insurance amounts totaling 10 billion rubles was set at 1%. Furthermore, the RNRC compiled a list of geographic locations where object reinsurance is carried out exclusively on an individual basis—under terms agreed upon for each specific case. This means that standard package policies for facilities in "red zones" are effectively unavailable, and negotiations with the reinsurer turn into a lengthy and non-linear process.
Impact on Business and Risk Structure
Experts interviewed by Kommersant note that data center operator companies are beginning to reduce the scope of insurance coverage or completely exclude certain types of risks from their policies. Under conditions where a 5% premium on property valued in the tens of billions of rubles turns into an astronomical sum of annual payments, insurance ceases to be a risk management tool and becomes a factor undermining business profitability. According to sources, some operators are shifting to a self-insurance model by creating reserve funds, while others are simply absorbing the risk of potential attack losses, counting on the probability of a repeat hit on a specific facility remaining low.
Broader Context: Digital Infrastructure as a Conflict Target
The rise in insurance rates for data centers is merely the visible part of a deeper process: both sides of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict are consistently expanding the list of targets considered permissible for strikes. While back in 2024–2025 attacks on IT infrastructure were targeted and episodic, by the autumn of 2026 they had acquired a systemic character on both sides. For the insurance market, this means a transition from a "low probability — low premium" model to a "high probability — premium rate" model, which ultimately shifts the financial burden onto the end consumers of digital services whose data is stored in the insured centers. The question of whether the insurance market in Russia will be able to offer adequate conditions for IT infrastructure in the medium term remains open.
