While large cultural networks and a collaborative business model in digital heritage stay the most important priorities on Russian governmental agendas and action plans (Ministry of Mass Media and Communication 2010, Ministry of Culture 2011), there is a need to recognise and support smaller digital heritage initiatives that employ academic and research assets, experience and expertise. The research and development approaches that combine ICT and cultural initiatives are helpful in creating a pool of technical, academic and social skills. In this respect, it is important to establish and promote digital humanities laboratories and encourage disseminating research results in the form of conferences, web publications and professional networks (Garskova 2005).

Prioritising large scale projects on the government agenda should be combined with mid-sized and small scale projects. This may increase the transparency and accountability of digital heritage projects. Sustainability can be increased if the efforts of digital heritage practitioners at all levels are diversified and applied to digital heritage projects of different scales and formats.

This paper recommends

- conducting workshops and disseminating training materials on international standards and their components to provide a benchmark for a Russian national standard

- translating established vocabularies and terminology lists compliant with a would-be national standard into Russian with the purpose of contributing to a single national standard and improving information retrieval at regional museums

- creating digital humanities centres at Russian universities for a stimulating environment that sustains participatory learning of cultural heritage and IT skills

Diversification of project levels (national, regional and local level) may improve the sustainability of digital heritage initiatives in Russia and mitigate the risk of corruption.