New laws in Russia: AI and crypto-currency

This report focuses on key regulatory changes affecting the digital economy in Russia and globally in July 2026. The main focus is on two significant legislative changes in Russia: the development of regulations governing artificial intelligence and the cryptoeconomy. With regard to artificial intelligence, the report examines the new Federal Law "On Support for AI," which regulates large foundational models and introduces the statuses of "national" and "sovereign" AI models. The report analyzes requirements for their development and operation, infrastructure localization, the use of data for training, the protection of intellectual property rights, and the labeling of AI content. Persistent regulatory gaps are highlighted, including the absence of specific requirements for small, high-risk AI systems, as well as for AI providers and users. The Russian approach is compared with international practices in risk-based regulation. With regard to the cryptoeconomy, the report analyzes the new framework for the circulation of cryptocurrencies and digital financial assets: criteria for admitting cryptocurrencies to trading, requirements for investors and cryptocurrency exchanges, rules for storing and transferring cryptocurrencies, their use in foreign trade settlements, as well as new opportunities for the issuance and exchange trading of digital financial assets. Issues of foreign exchange control and the regulation of foreign crypto wallets are examined separately. The report also provides an overview of international trends as of July 2026, including the regulation of the most powerful AI models in the U.S., e-commerce in India, ultra-fast fashion in France, DeFi, and the digital euro in the EU.