U.S. communications technology and services firm Cisco Systems plans to open a network innovation center in Russia's hi-tech hub Skolkovo near Moscow in the summer of 2012, the company said on Tuesday.

The center's first project will focus on the development of new video analysis technologies to search for necessary footage in large volumes of video material that are produced daily, in particular, recordings of CCTV cameras.

Cisco expects about 30 people be working in the center by the fall of 2012.

Cisco also planned to cooperate with Skolkovo in a project to make intelligent energy networks but Cisco Russia General Manager Pavel Betsis said it was still under discussion.

"This project has not yet been approved yet but is still regarded as a possible new phase of cooperation between Cisco and Skolkovo," Betsis said.

The Cisco press service told RIA Novosti the company would also help to implement start-up projects in Russia by giving access to research laboratories and supporting educational initiatives.

At a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in June 2010, Cisco President John Chambers said the company intended to invest $1 billion during ten years in the development of innovation and free enterprise in Russia.