Azbuka Interneta: Digital Literacy for Russian Pensioners

Azbuka Interneta ('ABC of the Internet'), launched September 2014 in six Russian cities, is a social/charitable digital-literacy programme run by Rostelecom, Russia's largest majority state-owned telecom operator, with the Social Fund of Russia (former Pension Fund).

Provide free digital-literacy training to pensioners covering device use, internet safety, video calls, online shopping, and increasingly e-government services such as pension applications and telemedicine bookings.

Free courses taught mostly by volunteer instructors such as librarians and social workers; an annual 'Thank You, Internet!' competition has run since 2015.

By its 10th anniversary in 2024, more than 500,000 people had completed training across 76 regions, with 60,000+ free textbooks distributed and 35,000+ competition participants across 79 regions since 2015; the programme won WSIS Prizes in 2020 and 2023. Annual enrolment declined from roughly 48,900 in 2022 to about 38,300 in 2024, with yearly reach under 2% of Russia's approximately 33 million pensioners.

Because the programme is run by a state-linked telecom and state pension agency, most public reporting is self-published rather than independently evaluated, and no third-party assessment of learning outcomes was found.