For the first time, a law establishing the legal framework for regulating artificial intelligence has been adopted in the Russian Federation.

On September 1, 2026, Federal Law No. 243-FZ of July 26, 2026, "On Supporting the Development of Artificial Intelligence Technologies in the Russian Federation" came into effect. It changes the legal regulation of the artificial intelligence (hereinafter "AI") sector in the Russian Federation and establishes a legal framework for the development and application of AI technologies. The law:

• introduces a classification of AI models into standard, sovereign (created by a Russian entity and operating on domestic infrastructure), and national (created by a Russian entity but allowing the use of foreign components), depending on the extent to which Russian infrastructure and its components are utilized;
• grants developers of sovereign and national models access to state support measures (grants, subsidies, tax incentives, and simplified access to government data);
• requires owners of large digital platforms (with over 500,000 daily users) to provide users with the technical capability to voluntarily label content;
• imposes an obligation on developers and owners of AI models to ensure the security of their models and to establish rules for their operation and decommissioning.

The current version of the AI law does not impose restrictions on the use of neural networks, does not mandate the labeling of AI-generated content, and does not address issues regarding copyright for AI-generated content or liability for violations involving its use.

We recommend analyzing your company's status as a developer or owner of AI models and evaluating the feasibility of obtaining sovereign/national model status to access state support measures. The C Cases team is ready to assist with assessing your company's compliance with the new requirements and preparing the necessary documentation.