On March 25, the Russian State Duma passed the bill in its third and final reading, paving the way for equipping banks across Russia with electronic jamming systems and allowing selected bank employees to shoot down incoming unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), according to the TASS news agency.
The bill comes amid Ukraine's increasingly sophisticated long-range drone strikes on Russian infrastructure, particularly energy targets. It explicitly cites the need to protect facilities of the Russian Central Bank, including those in four eastern Ukrainian provinces that Moscow claims to have annexed despite not fully controlling them.
Under the plan, banks will fund the installation of jamming equipment on-site. With banks present in nearly every town, integrating them into the air defense network could help expand protective coverage. Employees are authorized to disrupt drone control signals, damage, or destroy unmanned aerial, underwater, and ground vehicles threatening their facilities without waiting for a response from security forces.
Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, told Russian media RBK: "Jamming will be used to make it harder for drones to identify targets and attack. Additionally, we will use measures to shoot down these drones, thereby protecting the relevant targets." Each organization will decide which employees undergo training for these measures.
The bill was first introduced in August 2024 and later expanded in scope. It still needs approval from the Federation Council (upper house) and President Vladimir Putin's signature to become law. Major banks like state-owned Sberbank are among those affected, though banks are not considered primary targets.
The plan raises questions about feasibility, as widespread equipment installation and personnel training require enormous organizational effort. It also deviates from President Putin's efforts to shield ordinary Russians from feeling the consequences of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine in daily life.
