Laboratory of Quantum Information Theory -

Московский Физико-Технический институт (Физтех)

The news from the laboratory sent shockwaves through Moscow’s intelligentsia. The capitalists salivated, as oligarchs clamored to lobby the government for exclusive rights to the technology. The communists protested that it should be used for the common good. To the faithful, it was either the work of heresy or the justification of God’s will. To Putin, it was his Nikola Tesla moment.

The report from LVIV^MISiS, which had just been delivered to the Kremlin, was promising at worst and revolutionary at best. Using the so-called “Magic Russian Diamond,” both mined from the Ural Mountains and produced in Alrosa labs, the massive leap forward of making a qubit array with an error of rate one order of magnitude lower than the previous 1% error rate. (10^-3). With an error rate of 1 in 1,000 for the qubit array’s gates, there is now a commercially viable quantum computing technology.

Of course, “commercially viable” simply means (by these definitions) that a quantum computer using this array would be able to operate at room temperature with internal cooling rather than in the largescale labs of other quantum machines. It is, however, still prohibitively expensive for the average user, and impractically sized for the average user. However, the advances estimate that within two years a device viable for home use and priced more affordably (though still a luxury item) will be available using this technology.

The device is called the Сетунь (Setun), named after one of the first Soviet computer systems made and manufactured from 1959-1965. Priced at $250,000 per unit, and roughly the size of the operator’s console of the UNIVAC systems from 1951, this iteration of the quantum computer is still being tested and has only been approved for very limited sale. Any sale of the Setun would have to be approved by the Kremlin and receive the signature of both President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Alexander Lukashenko.

With startup funds of $15mn the government has approved the creation of a state-owned company that will be called SOYUZKVANT (СОЮЗКВАНТ). This startup funding will go towards establishing an infrastructure for future advertising, sales, and working with LVIV^MISiS on establishing largescale production of future machines.

In addition to this SOYUZKVANT has been provided a government loan in the sum of $5.04bn, which is used to acquire 18% of the diamond company Alrosa from the public market. This move gives the Russian government, via the state owned shares and SOYUZKVANT 51% ownership of Alrosa and all of their facilities including the quantum diamond labs.

The following is list of approved sales of the Setun, all of which (as still experimental) are to be supervised and tested by LVIV^MISiS representatives and are specifically made to order. Due to high production costs including labor costs of these systems the price scales as additional systems are produced. (Classified, of course duh)