Russia’s lower house of parliament has approved a draft bill to allow banks to install electronic jamming systems on their premises and authorise selected staff to shoot down incoming drones
Russian bank employees could soon find themselves on the front lines of the country’s air defences under a sweeping new proposal aimed at countering Ukrainian drone attacks.
Russia’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday approved a draft bill that would allow banks to install electronic jamming systems on their premises and authorise selected staff to shoot down incoming drones threatening their facilities.
The legislation, passed in its third and final reading by the State Duma, comes as Moscow struggles to defend its vast territory from increasingly frequent and sophisticated Ukrainian drone strikes. Since banks operate in nearly every Russian town and city, officials appear to see the financial sector as a potential nationwide extension of the country’s air-defence network.
The bill, first introduced last August and later broadened in scope, still requires approval from the Federation Council and President Vladimir Putin’s signature before becoming law, according to state news agency Interfax.
Russia has faced mounting pressure from Ukrainian long-range drone attacks deep inside its territory, while smaller drones continue to disrupt Russian troop movements and supply lines along the 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line, according to Western analysts and officials.
As attacks have intensified, Russian authorities have increasingly encouraged businesses and civilian infrastructure operators to contribute to protective measures against aerial threats.
The proposal would apply to Russia’s central bank as well as major financial institutions including state-controlled Sberbank, despite banks not being considered major targets of Ukrainian drone operations during the war.
Under the legislation approved by the Duma, authorised bank employees would be permitted to jam or intercept drone control signals and “damage or destroy uncrewed aerial, underwater and ground vehicles” threatening their facilities without waiting for security services to respond.
“Jamming will be used to make it more difficult for (the drones) to target and attack the relevant targets,” Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, told Russian outlet RBK. “Plus, we’ll also use means to shoot down these drones, thereby protecting the relevant targets.”
The bill leaves individual organisations responsible for deciding which employees would be authorised to carry out such measures.
However, the proposal has raised questions about how the system would function in practice, including the logistical challenge of installing jamming equipment nationwide and training civilian employees to respond to aerial threats.
The move could also complicate Kremlin efforts to insulate ordinary Russians from the direct effects of the war by involving civilian workers more visibly in domestic defence operations.
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