Roman Kalina

Roman Kalina holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics (MESI, 1999), thesis: "Architecting the Economic Data Infrastructure for Public Administration". He graduated with honors from Orenburg State Pedagogical Institute in 1995, majoring in Mathematics and Computer Science. A certified programmer since age 15 (1988), he won regional olympiads in mathematics and computer science and represented Orenburg Region at the All-Russian Mathematics Olympiad (1990, school level; 1992, university level).

The "Vybory" ("Elections") National Automated System

Roman Kalina began his professional IT career in 1995 at the Orenburg Regional Election Commission, first as a system administrator and soon as Head of the IT Center. Over five years, he deployed the hardware and software of the initial version of the "Vybory" ("Elections") system across all 52 districts of Orenburg Region. He initiated the creation of the All-Russian Council of GAS "Vybory" System Administrators and in 1997 was elected by his peers as its first chairman.

In 2000, he became the first head of a regional "Vybory" ("Elections") IT center to be recruited to Moscow, joining the Federal Center of Informatization (FCI) of the Central Election Commission. He started as the specialist responsible for developing and deploying the election results processing software, and was subsequently appointed Head of the IT Development Department. In this role, he was responsible for developing the system's full application software suite, deploying third-party platform software, and ensuring the information security of the "Vybory" ("Elections") system, which at the time ran on over 7,000 workstations and 200 servers nationwide. He implemented the real-time publication of voting results from all 90,000 polling stations on the Central Election Commission website within 24 hours, increasing electoral transparency. Working with the system's lead contractor in 2003–2004, he delivered the modernized version of the system, which ran without major disruption for over 20 years. By decision of the Central Election Commission, Roman Kalina was appointed to the System Acceptance Board responsible for evaluating the completed development and determining whether the system was fully ready for permanent operation.

The "Pravosudie" ("Justice") National Automated System

After completing the "Vybory" ("Elections") modernization, Roman Kalina joined Voskhod Research Institute, the lead state IT integrator for Russia's Ministry of Communications, as Senior Advisor to the Director (2005–2007). He managed the launch of the company's work on a new national-scale system, the "Pravosudie" ("Justice") automated system. Drawing on his "Vybory" experience, he took an active part in shaping the foundational architecture of this IT project for Russia's court system, producing the core technical documentation and initial software releases, and establishing effective collaboration between the development teams and the Judicial Department.

Rosstat, National Statistics

In 2007, Roman Kalina took charge of IT at the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) as Head of IT. He led the transition to an open data model: from 2008, the full national statistics dataset was published on the Rosstat portal for free public access. He managed IT operations across 22,000 workstations in 2,300 regional offices throughout Russia and conducted a comprehensive audit of IT assets.

Private IT Sector

From 2009 to 2012, Roman Kalina was Managing Director of a newly launched IT company. He built the operational foundation and implemented the processes that transformed it from a local software developer into a full-cycle systems integrator. Within three years, the company reached the top 100 of the Russian IT market and became the country's fastest-growing IT company. Under his leadership, the company delivered several major national-scale IT projects.

The "Pravosudie" ("Justice") System, Full-Scale Development

From 2012 to 2019, Roman Kalina was Deputy Head of the newly established Information and Analytical Center (IAC) of the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court of Russia. For nearly seven years, he directed the development of the full software suite of the "Pravosudie" ("Justice") system and its information security. The system ran on 150,000 workstations and several thousand servers across 2,500 court locations throughout Russia. He brought the development of thirty software components under unified management. He led the delivery of the SMS notification system for court participants, the Judicial Digital Certificate Authority, the system's first data center, integration with the national e-government data bus (SMEV) and unified identity provider (ESIA), and legally binding online filing of court cases across all federal courts in Russia.

He represented the Judicial Department at sessions of the Government Commission on integrating the court system with the national e-government data bus (SMEV). For his contributions to the digitalization of the justice system, Roman Kalina received five awards from the Judicial Department and several honorary certificates. The Council of Europe's CEPEJ report, covering the 2018 evaluation period, gave Russia's court information system its highest rating.

Current Roles

In 2019, Roman Kalina returned to the private technology sector. As of 2026, he serves on the boards of private IT companies, focusing on strategic management, international business development, and high-tech projects in IT and finance.

Roman Kalina publications and interviews are available in the Publications section (RU).