IT partners after having signed contracts with Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems and others. In his position of the High-level advisor to the Chairman of VTB, Mr. Korotkov has been steering through the analysis of mergers and acquisitions procedure legislation in the banking sphere both in Russia and in the EU. The Government of the Russian Federation Since 1996 to 2002 Mr. Korotkov held various positions in the Government of the Russian Federation and Administration of the President of Russia including journalistic and PR activities in the Television and Radio complex of Kremlin and the 5 cabinet office of the Prime Minister of Russia. In 2002 he was appointed the First Deputy Minister of the Ministry for Telecommunications and Informatisation of the Russian Federation and in this position was responsible for a number of major federal information technology projects in Russia. Among them are the national critical infrastructure elements protection development, State automated system “Elections” elaboration, free software implementation in the governmental institutions promotion, etc. He is famous as one of the most prominent ideologists of the information society development in Russia. As the First Deputy Minister of the Ministry for Telecommunications and Informatisation of Russia, Mr. Korotkov was the head of the First Directorate of the Federal “E-Russia” Program and carried out tenders for the Federal projects realization in Moscow and regions of the Russian Federations. Mr. Korotkov has also regularly represented Russia in the UN information and communication activities, in particular was the head of the Russian delegation for the First phase of the World Summit on the information society held in December 2003 in Geneva. The UN activities As a member of the UN ICT Task Force and an adviser to the UN General-Secretary on the ICT issues, he initiated the foundation of the Moscow UN ICT Task Force Bureau of the European and Central Asian Regional Node and used to be the head of the organisation. Since the foundation of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development, Mr. Korotkov has become a member of the GAID and is taking part in the GAID activities. In the framework of his international activities Mr. Korotkov participated in a number of international economic and ICT oriented initiatives including negotiations with OECD in Honolulu and OPEC, and World Economic Forum. Teaching activities As an expert on ICT, information economy and artificial languages and semiotics, Mr. Korotkov teaches in a number