Foreign AI tools, including Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini, could face outright bans or significant restrictions within Russia if they do not comply with sweeping new regulations proposed by the country's Ministry for Digital Development. The draft rules, published online by the Ministry, would extend Russia's long-standing ambition of creating a sovereign internet, one insulated from foreign influence and aligned with what Moscow terms traditional Russian spiritual and moral values, into the rapidly expanding AI sector.
In a statement accompanying the proposals, the Ministry for Digital Development said the new framework was designed to help protect citizens from covert manipulation and discriminatory algorithms.
The initiative is widely expected to benefit domestically developed AI platforms, including those being built by state-owned lender Sberbank and technology conglomerate Yandex. It has been made public at a moment when the Russian state is actively tightening its grip on internet access and online services more broadly. The regulations are anticipated to come into force next year, subject to further review and formal government approval.
The draft text states plainly: "The operation of cross-border artificial intelligence technologies may be prohibited or restricted in cases specified by the legislation of the Russian Federation." State news agency RIA reported that foreign AI tools would fall within the scope of the new rules on the grounds that their use inevitably results in the personal data of Russian citizens being transmitted overseas.
Certain foreign open-source AI tools, such as China's Qwen or DeepSeek, could potentially be adapted and deployed safely within a closed environment, running on the proprietary infrastructure of Russian government bodies and companies. In such cases, any data processed would remain entirely within that infrastructure, placing them outside the scope of the cross-border restrictions.
Under the proposed regulatory regime, RIA reported that AI models used by more than 500,000 people per day would be required to store Russian user data on Russian soil for a minimum of three years in order to remain compliant. Technology companies have historically declined to meet such data localisation demands — a stance that is likely to place them on a collision course with the new framework should it pass into law.
