In 1999 г. the IIS Board of Directors instituted a special award, a Diploma "For Major Contributions to the Information Society Development in Russia". The Diploma has been awarded to the following people and organizations:

• Yasen N. Zassoursky - Professor, Dean of the Journalism Department of the Lomonosov Moscow State University (1999)
• Leonid D. Rejman - Minister of the Russian Federation for Communications and Informatization (2001)
• Dmitry S. Chereshkin - Professor, Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences; Head of Lab at the Institute of Systems Analysis of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Member of the IIS Board of Directors (2001)
• Stepan V. Orlov - Deputy of the Moscow City Duma, coordinator of the work of Moscow City Duma on Information, Informatization, Telecommunication, and Television; Member of the IIS Supervisory Board (2001)
• Research and Education Network FREEnet (2001)
• Journalism Department of the Lomonosov Moscow State University (2002)
• Boris V. Kristal'ny - Advisor of the Committee on Information Policy and Communications of State Duma (Parliament) of the Russian Federation; Member of the IIS Board of Directors (2002)
• Moscow Telecommunications Corporation (COMCOR) (2002)
• Vladimir A. Tartakovsky - Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2002)
• Evgeny V. Semenov - Professor, General Director of the Russian Humanitarian Scientific Foundation (2002)
• Konstantin V. Vetrov - Deputy of the State Duma (Parliament) of the Russian Federation, Head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy and Communications (2002)
• Yuri E. Hohlov - Chairman of the IIS Board of Directors; Head of the Moscow City Duma Public Expert Council on Information Society development (2004)
• Alexander M. Elizarov - Director of the N.G. Chebotarev Research Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics of the Kazan State University; member of the IIS Board of Directors (2005)
• Olga N. Vershinskaya - Chief Specialist of the Institute Socio-Economic Studies of Population of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Head of the IIS Directorate of Social and Economic Programs (2005)
• Sergey B. Shaposhnik - Head of the Center of Computer Telecommunications of the N.I. Vavilov Institute for the History of Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Head of IIS Directorate of Monitoring Information Society Development (2005)
• Victor V. Stroganov - General Director of K-Technologies company, Deputy General Director – IIS Executive Director (2007)
• Tatiana V. Ershova – IIS General Director (2008)
• Rafael M. Yusupov - Director of the Saint Petersburg Institute of Informatics and Automation, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2009)