A draft law has been submitted to the Russian State Duma that will oblige foreign IT companies to open full-fledged representative offices in Russia. Hosting providers, advertising systems operators, and “online information distributors” are concerned as well.
Should such a law be adopted, foreign companies with an annual client base of at least 500,000 Russian users will have to open branches in Russia. These representative offices will be held liable for any violations of Russian legislation by these IT giants.