Mintsifry to Control 28,000 Russian AI Companies
Because nothing screams technological progress quite like heavy-handed state bureaucracy, our neighbors are preparing a massive digital leash for their entire domestic tech sector. Prepare for some top-tier compliance theater.
A new government decree draft transforms the Russian Ministry of Digital Development (known as Mintsifry) into the ultimate overlord of all domestic artificial intelligence. The ministry is set to receive 20 brand-new regulatory powers starting September 2026, effectively seizing control of the country's entire AI landscape.
Under this new digital regime, the ministry will dictate state AI policy, write new laws, and decide which lucky developers get tax breaks or crumbs of state grants. They will also control who gets access to state data for model training, which is surely a great way to ensure only the most politically loyal neural networks get to learn how to read.
To handle this sudden influx of bureaucratic joy, Mintsifry is splitting its internal structure. A newly minted department will focus entirely on shoving neural networks into the public sector, while an existing department is left with the minor task of actually improving the underlying technology.
The regulation targets roughly 28,000 active IT companies and individual entrepreneurs, sparing only micro-businesses too small to be worth the paperwork. Officials estimate that compliance could cost the local tech sector anywhere from 300 million to 3 billion rubles over the next six years, though they cheerfully admit this number is mostly a wild guess.
This centralization of power follows a chaotic legislative journey that began in early 2026. An earlier framework bill attempted to categorize AI models into "sovereign," "national," and "trusted" varieties, but it had to be heavily watered down, dropping controversial clauses like mandatory content labeling and outright bans on foreign technologies.
The ultimate punchline lies in the ministry's recent internal housekeeping. Just as Mintsifry was preparing to assume these massive new AI powers, it laid off 15% of its staff and handed several key functions over to the FSB.
Trying to build cutting-edge artificial intelligence while simultaneously downsizing the tech ministry and letting the security service run the digital show is a masterclass in bureaucratic comedy. One can only wonder if the 'sovereign' AI models will be trained primarily to write reports for the secret police.
Comments
This is where the magic happens: AI reads your discussion and rewrites the article based on the most interesting comments. Each strong comment adds points to the meter below. Once the meter is full, the article updates live — no page reload needed.