Translated material
The State Duma obliged operators to disconnect communications at the request of the FSB
The State Duma, in the second and third readings, adopted amendments to the law “On Communications,” which will allow the FSB to turn off any type of communication in any region and at any time.
According to the document, operators will be required to suspend the provision of services upon receipt of demands from the FSB in cases established by regulatory legal acts of the President of Russia.
Initially, the draft law stated that the FSB could send “requests” to block communications “in order to protect citizens and the state from emerging security threats,” but by the second reading the “request” was replaced with “demands,” and the part about protecting the population from “security threats” was completely removed.
According to First Department lawyer Evgeniy Smirnov, after the amendments are adopted, the reasons for blocking communications will not be limited. “This rather frees the hands of the president, since he will determine such cases,” Smirnov emphasized in a comment to the Agency.
A bill on the right of the FSB to restrict communications was submitted to the State Duma in November 2025. State agencies, citing a source, wrote that the goal of the initiative is to relieve operators from liability when communications are cut off due to drone attacks.
In addition, Russia plans to create a database of mobile devices (unique IMEI numbers). Communication will be provided only to those devices whose numbers are included in the registry. Deputy head of the Ministry of Defense Dmitry Ugnivenko spoke about plans to create a register of mobile devices in order to more effectively block drones of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, since some devices use SIM cards when approaching a target. As Kommersant wrote , the FSB approached the Ministry of Digital Development with a proposal to create a register of numbers.
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The State Duma obliged operators to disconnect communications at the request of the FSB