Like most things Putin, he fails to see that is probably something to do with the way the Russian tech industry is run, but more of a Western plot.

He said that the West should not be allowed to develop a monopoly in the sphere of AI, and said that a much more ambitious Russian strategy for the development of AI would be approved shortly.

It is an odd thing to say. While the US is leading the way in the development of AI, Putin’s chum China is fast behind and gathering ground.

Moscow’s ambitions have been set back due to the war in Ukraine, which prompted many talented specialists to leave Russia to avoid being conscripted and sent into suicide attacks and triggered Western sanctions that have hindered the country's high-tech imports.

Putin said that banning AI was impossible despite the sometimes troubling ethical and social consequences of new technologies.

"You cannot ban something - if we ban it, then it will develop somewhere else, and we will fall behind," Putin said of AI, though he said ethical questions should be resolved concerning "traditional" Russian culture.

Putin cautioned that some Western online search systems and generative models ignored or cancelled Russian language and culture. Such Western algorithms thought Russia did not exist.

"Of course, the monopoly and domination of such systems, such alien systems, are unacceptable and dangerous," he said.