Self-regulation as a legal mechanism for ensuring digital sovereignty: the concept of self-regulation for gamers and controlled legalization of access.

The object of the study is social relations that arise in the process of state regulation and self-regulation of Russian citizens' access to international digital communication resources. The subject of the study encompasses the legal, economic, and political aspects of the creation and functioning of the Self-Regulatory Organization of Gamers (SRO) as a mechanism for balancing digital sovereignty and freedom of access. The relevance is determined by the ineffectiveness of the current prohibitive policy. Despite significant state investments (over 30 billion rubles) in traffic control measures (DPI), the share of citizens using VPN services reaches 60%, which paradoxically strengthens uncontrolled shadow traffic and threatens national security. Particular attention is paid to analyzing the historical experience of the USSR (using the example of Anatoly Kitov's Unified State Data Center project), where concerns of the party nomenclature about delegating control led to critical technological backwardness. The author thoroughly examines the economic losses associated with the fiscal leakage of multi-billion ruble funds (total gamer expenditures exceeding 200 billion rubles annually) into offshore schemes through illegal payment systems. The methodological framework of the study consists of general scientific methods (systemic, structural-functional analysis), historical-legal methods (analysis of USSR precedents), comparative-legal methods (experiences of the PRC and the EU), and the method of political modeling of the SRO concept. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that for the first time, a conceptual model of SRO as a legal mechanism for selective delegation of legal access to resources subject to state restrictions is proposed and justified, in exchange for mandatory verification and compliance with legislation by adult citizens (18+ model). The main conclusions of the conducted study are: SRO is the most flexible and least costly tool for ensuring the goals of digital sovereignty, capable of minimizing risks associated with mass use of VPNs and shadow payments. The SRO ensures fiscal legalization, returning part of the 204 billion rubles in expenditures to the budget. The strategic role of the SRO as a tool of "soft power" is also justified, demonstrating to the world the high cognitive abilities of citizens. As a practical recommendation, it is proposed to initiate amendments to Federal Law No. 149-FZ to legally establish the possibility of excluding verified members of accredited SROs from the general blocking rules and to develop a procedure for interaction between the SRO and the Roskomnadzor (RKN) for the formation of an agency “White List.”