Russia's AI law is Federal Law No. 243-FZ of 26 July 2026, "On supporting the development of artificial intelligence technologies in the Russian Federation". Most of its provisions have been in force since 1 September 2026, and a separate set takes effect on 1 March 2027. For most companies that use ready made AI services, the law adds no new fines and no ban on foreign models, but before 1 March 2027 it is worth checking whether its requirements apply to you.
What law 243-FZ regulates
The law sets a framework for building and using artificial intelligence in the country and relies on the notion of a large foundation model: under article 3 that is a program containing at least 1 billion parameters and used for a wide range of tasks. The law separately covers the statuses of sovereign and national large models, the duties of their developers, and the marking of material created with such models. The key point for business: the developer of a large model is the one who builds it. A company that connects a ready made model through a subscription or an API does not become a developer, so the developer duties that start on 1 March 2027 do not apply to it. This matters if you deploy AI agents on ready made models. The full text of the law is published in the official legal database.
The dates that matter
The rules arrive in stages, and three dates are worth keeping in mind when you plan.
- since 1 September 2026 the definitions, principles, and part of the authorities' powers apply;
- from 1 March 2027 the duties of large model developers, the rules on sovereign and national models, and the marking rules take effect;
- until 1 September 2032 there is a transition period for the requirement to use only sovereign or national models, and it does not touch systems that were running on 1 March 2027 if the data is processed and stored in Russia.
Law 243-FZ itself introduces no separate fines for using AI. At the same time the personal data law 152-FZ keeps applying on its own, so the question of where and how client data is stored stays at the top of the list.
The main point: if you use AI through ready made services, you are not a developer of a large model and the core duties do not fall on you. Still, check where your data is stored and what your contract with the provider says, ahead of time.
What it means for the budget
For a company that uses AI in its CRM, in marketing, or in document processing through a subscription, law 243-FZ adds no costs right now: there are no fines in it and you do not take on developer status. Sensible preparation before 1 March 2027 is not a lawyer's invoice but an inventory: list your AI tools with the provider, the model, and where the data is stored, check whether your prompts are used to train someone else's model, and revise contracts where needed. Doing this early is cheaper than reworking processes in a hurry. If it matters that data stays on your side, we help set up speech analytics for calls and other AI agents with control over where the data goes; work is billed at 3,900 RUB per hour, and the service benchmarks are on the pricing page.