Russia’s quantum computing effort is organised around a national Quantum Computing Roadmap that the Rosatom state corporation has coordinated since 2020. Rosatom reported total roadmap funding of roughly 24 billion rubles across 2020 to 2024, of which about half came from Rosatom itself, and the programme funds four hardware platforms in parallel: trapped ions, neutral atoms, superconducting circuits, and photonics. This guide profiles the main organisations in that ecosystem, from the Russian Quantum Center at Skolkovo and the Rosatom-coordinated roadmap through the commercial vendors QRate, Scontel, and QApp, the in-house quantum work at Sberbank, and the academic anchors at Lomonosov Moscow State University, the Lebedev Physical Institute, and ITMO University in St Petersburg.
Why Russia runs a state-coordinated quantum programme
Russia has built one of the larger national quantum-computing programmes outside the United States, China, and the European Union. The work runs under a national Quantum Computing Roadmap that the Rosatom state corporation has coordinated since 2020, and Rosatom reported total roadmap funding of about 24 billion rubles across 2020 to 2024, with roughly half coming from Rosatom itself. Rather than concentrate on one qubit technology, the roadmap funds four hardware platforms at once, and much of the primary research sits with the Russian Quantum Center and its academic partners.
In 2024 the programme delivered two 50-qubit prototypes. In September 2024 Rosatom announced a 50-qubit ion-based machine built in a laboratory run jointly by the Russian Quantum Center and the Lebedev Physical Institute, and in December 2024 Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Russian Quantum Center presented Russia’s first 50-qubit prototype based on single neutral rubidium atoms held in optical tweezers. Russian teams had reached a 20-qubit system earlier in 2024, so the move to 50 qubits came ahead of the original roadmap schedule. Published fidelity and coherence figures remain below those of the leading US and European systems, and the 2025 to 2030 phase of the roadmap shifts emphasis toward practical, industrial applications.
The Rosatom Quantum Computing Roadmap
The national Quantum Computing Roadmap is the central funding and coordination instrument for Russian quantum computing. Rosatom has coordinated it since 2020, and it organises work across four platforms, with neutral-atom and ion research at the Russian Quantum Center, Moscow State University, and the Lebedev Physical Institute, and superconducting and photonic research spread across those institutions and ITMO University. Rosatom serves as the primary funding and coordination layer for the effort.
The approach mirrors other national programmes that spread state funding across several qubit technologies rather than betting on one. Rosatom works alongside the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, and Sberbank has partnered with Rosatom on quantum research since 2021. The 2024 roadmap results reported prototype processors on all four platforms, including the two 50-qubit machines built during that year.
The main Russian quantum organisations
This guide covers eight organisations. Three are research or state bodies at Skolkovo and Moscow, namely the Russian Quantum Center, the Rosatom-coordinated roadmap, and the QRate spinout. Two are commercial vendors, Scontel in single-photon detectors and QApp in post-quantum cryptography, and one is the in-house quantum programme at Sberbank. Two more are academic anchors, the Moscow State University Quantum Technology Center and ITMO University in St Petersburg.
What the lineup reveals
Three patterns stand out. First, the Russian ecosystem is unusually multi-platform for its size, with active programmes in all four major hardware technologies plus commercial strengths in single-photon detectors through Scontel and QKD through QRate. Most of that hardware work sits inside academic and state institutions rather than a wide field of independent hardware firms.
State coordination sits at the centre
Second, the Rosatom-coordinated roadmap is the organising structure for almost all Russian quantum-computing hardware work. Rosatom reported about 24 billion rubles of roadmap funding across 2020 to 2024, and it spreads that funding across several qubit technologies at once. The 2025 to 2030 phase shifts the stated emphasis toward practical and industrial applications.
The international-collaboration footprint shifted in 2022
Third, the international footprint of the Russian ecosystem changed after the 2022 sanctions on Russian technology exports. Scontel’s detector exports to Western national-laboratory customers narrowed, and QRate’s QKD deployments concentrated on domestic and regional markets. Joint publications between Russian and Western groups also declined over the same period.
Multi-platform coverage across ions, atoms, superconductors, and photonics
The Russian hardware programme covers four platforms in parallel, each led by a different cluster. Neutral-atom work runs at the Russian Quantum Center and Moscow State University on rubidium atoms held in optical tweezers, demonstrated at 50 qubits in December 2024. Ion-trap work runs at the Lebedev Physical Institute together with the Russian Quantum Center, which produced a 50-qubit ion machine announced in September 2024. Superconducting-circuit and photonic work is spread across RQC, MSU, and ITMO University.
The Rosatom multi-platform hedge
Running four platforms at once hedges against the architectural uncertainty every national programme faces, since no single qubit technology has clearly won on the path to fault tolerance. Our quantum logical-qubit leaderboard tracks that cross-platform picture. Spreading a state budget across ions, neutral atoms, superconducting circuits, and photonics is a common playbook for national programmes operating under that uncertainty.
QKD networks and quantum-secure communications
Russia runs one of the larger national QKD programmes outside China and the EU, built around QRate’s fibre-optic systems and a state-backed deployment effort across banking, government, and telecommunications networks. Russian authorities have treated QKD as a priority technology since the late 2010s, and early pilots included a quantum-secured link between two Sberbank branches in Moscow in 2017.
The broader Russian quantum-secure-communications stack combines QRate’s QKD hardware, QApp’s post-quantum cryptography software, and Scontel’s single-photon detectors. The 2022 sanctions narrowed the international export side of that stack, concentrating deployments on domestic and regional markets rather than the wider footprint of the 2018 to 2022 period.
The sanctions context and collaboration shift
The 2022 sanctions on Russian technology exports, together with academic-collaboration restrictions, reshaped the international footprint of the Russian quantum ecosystem. Scontel’s detector exports to US, European, and Asian national-laboratory customers narrowed relative to the pre-2022 period, when it was one of the more prominent global suppliers. QRate’s QKD deployments concentrated on domestic and regional markets over the same time.
Joint publications between Russian and Western quantum groups declined after 2022, and talent mobility shifted away from the earlier pattern of open international exchange. Russian research output has continued, but its international visibility and commercial-export reach have both narrowed since the sanctions took effect.
Frequently asked questions
Who are the leading Russian quantum organisations in 2026?
This guide covers eight organisations. The Russian Quantum Center at Skolkovo, founded in 2010, anchors multi-platform research. The Rosatom-coordinated Quantum Computing Roadmap, run since 2020, organises state funding across four hardware platforms. QRate, a Russian Quantum Center spinout, is the main commercial QKD vendor, and Scontel, founded in 2004, makes superconducting single-photon detectors. QApp builds post-quantum cryptography software, Sberbank runs an in-house quantum programme, and the Moscow State University Quantum Technology Center and ITMO University in St Petersburg anchor the academic side. In 2024 the programme produced two 50-qubit prototypes, one ion-based and one on neutral rubidium atoms.
What is the Rosatom Quantum Computing Roadmap?
The Rosatom Quantum Computing Roadmap is the Russian state-coordinated quantum programme that Rosatom has run since 2020. It funds four hardware platforms in parallel, with neutral atoms and ions at the Russian Quantum Center, Moscow State University, and the Lebedev Physical Institute, plus superconducting and photonic work at those institutions and ITMO University. Rosatom reported total roadmap funding of roughly 24 billion rubles across 2020 to 2024. In 2024 the programme delivered two 50-qubit prototypes, and the 2025 to 2030 phase shifts emphasis toward practical, industrial applications.
What are Russia’s 50-qubit quantum computers?
In 2024 Russia produced two 50-qubit prototypes under the Rosatom roadmap. In September 2024 Rosatom announced a 50-qubit ion-based machine built jointly by the Russian Quantum Center and the Lebedev Physical Institute, and in December 2024 Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Russian Quantum Center presented a 50-qubit prototype based on single neutral rubidium atoms held in optical tweezers. Russian teams had reached a 20-qubit system earlier in 2024, so the move to 50 qubits came ahead of the original schedule. Published fidelity and coherence figures remain below those of the leading US and European systems. See our top neutral atom quantum computing companies for international comparisons.
What is QRate?
QRate is a Russian fibre-optic QKD vendor spun out of the Russian Quantum Center to commercialise quantum-key-distribution systems for banking, government, and telecommunications customers. Its products cover metro-scale QKD links, single-photon detectors, and quantum random-number generators. In 2024 QRate reported that its QKD system was being prepared for formal Russian certification. The 2022 sanctions concentrated its deployments on domestic and regional markets.
How does the Russian Quantum Center relate to Skolkovo?
The Russian Quantum Center operates as an independent research organisation inside the Skolkovo innovation hub near Moscow, a state-backed technology campus that hosts thousands of startups across information technology, biomedicine, energy, and other fields. RQC anchors the quantum-computing work at Skolkovo and coordinates closely with Moscow State University and the Lebedev Physical Institute. Its main commercial spinout is QRate, and the QApp post-quantum cryptography company is also a Skolkovo resident.
How does Russia compare with China on quantum computing?
Russia and China both run state-coordinated multi-platform quantum programmes, but at very different scales. China’s national quantum budget is far larger than Russia’s roadmap funding, and its deployed hardware and commercial-vendor base, including Origin Quantum, QuantumCTek, and USTC laboratories, are broader than Russia’s. Russia’s strengths are concentrated in a smaller set of institutions and in specific components such as Scontel’s single-photon detectors. Both countries target practical applications over the second half of the decade.
What are the sanctions impacts on Russian quantum computing?
The 2022 sanctions on Russian technology exports and the broader academic-collaboration restrictions reshaped the international footprint of the Russian quantum ecosystem. Scontel’s detector exports to Western national-laboratory customers narrowed relative to the pre-2022 period, and QRate’s QKD deployments concentrated on domestic and regional markets. Joint publications between Russian and Western groups also declined. Russian research output has continued, but its international visibility and export reach have narrowed.
What is Scontel and what does it make?
Scontel is a Moscow-based maker of superconducting single-photon detectors, founded in 2004 by Gregory Goltsman and colleagues to commercialise SNSPD technology developed at Moscow State Pedagogical University. Its detectors provide low-noise, high-efficiency single-photon detection at telecom wavelengths, a component used across photonic quantum computing and quantum communications. Scontel is one of several suppliers worldwide making complete SNSPD systems, and it exported to national-laboratory customers internationally before the 2022 sanctions narrowed that footprint.
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