Russia: Ministry of Digital Development opened consultation on draft Law on Fundamentals of State Regulation of the Fields of Application of AI Technologies including design requirements

On 18 March 2026, the Ministry of Digital Development opened a consultation on the draft Law on Fundamentals of State Regulation of the Fields of Application of Artificial Intelligence Technologies until 15 April 2026. The draft law would require AI developers to remove features that could lead to discrimination based on behaviour or personal characteristics, to document the architecture, functional logic, and limitations of AI models, and to assess potential risks associated with the technologies under development. AI system operators would be obliged to include a safe operation manual in the system documentation, prohibiting the use of AI to manipulate behaviour or exploit human vulnerabilities. The draft defines such exploitation as the deliberate use of characteristics of individuals or groups to influence behaviour or decision-making, or to gain unauthorised access to information. The draft establishes a risk-based approach to regulation, requiring assessment of the purpose of artificial intelligence technologies, the probability and scale of risks of harm, the degree of autonomy of artificial intelligence systems, and the degree of influence of artificial intelligence systems on legally significant actions. The draft defines large foundational models as artificial intelligence models trained to recognise certain types of patterns and applied to perform a large number of different tasks, with minimum parameter thresholds to be established by the authorised body in the field of artificial intelligence. Requirements for computing infrastructure, including data processing centres and supercomputers, would be established by the Government of the Russian Federation.