The State Duma passed in its third reading a law on “sovereign” and “national” artificial intelli...

The State Duma passed in its third reading a law on “sovereign” and “national” artificial intelligence.

The document introduces two types of AI models. “Sovereign” ones must be developed entirely by Russian companies and store data on Russian servers, while “national” ones will be allowed to use foreign components.

Such systems may be used in sensitive areas only with government approval, and work with the banking system will require coordination with the Central Bank. The Ministry of Digital Development will become the single regulator in the AI sphere. The main provisions of the law will come into force on September 1, 2026.

Sergey Boyarsky, head of the State Duma committee on information policy, said that sovereign AI must comply with “traditional values.”

InfoWatch president Natalya Kaspersky criticized the law, saying that it cements the dominant position of Sber and Yandex, ignores security issues, and “will lead to the collapse of the domestic AI industry.”