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Russia has enacted legislation empowering its central bank and select financial institutions to independently operate anti-drone defense systems, as the country scrambles to protect critical infrastructure from an escalating campaign of Ukrainian aerial attacks.
The law, approved by Russia's State Duma earlier this week, permits staff at qualifying institutions to be armed and to deploy unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) countermeasure systems without waiting for intervention from special security forces.
Ukraine has struck Russian territory with drones at an increasingly frequent pace since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, regularly targeting energy installations and financial infrastructure as Kyiv seeks to drain Russia's wartime revenues.
Russia's largest lender, Sberbank, the Russian Cash Collection Association — the country's biggest transporter of cash and valuables — and the Special Postal Service are among the institutions covered under the new legislation, according to reports from news outlet RBC.
Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the State Duma's financial markets committee and one of the law's co-authors, said anti-drone systems would be installed near key sites and that relevant staff would be issued weapons. He added that each institution would bear the cost of its own defenses.
"If it's the central bank, then the central bank will pay; if it's Sberbank, then Sberbank will pay," Aksakov was quoted as saying.
The legislation allows for drone threats to be neutralized through signal jamming, interference with control panels, or the physical destruction of UAVs.
The development follows a missile strike on the central bank's office in Sevastopol on Wednesday, which local officials described as the first successful attack on a major Russian central bank facility since the war began. No attacks on major Sberbank offices have been reported.
