By Ekaterina Janashia | 2026-05-14

Every Russian who opens a shopping app to buy groceries or searches for a pair of shoes will soon encounter something they didn't ask for: the Kremlin's official news feed.

A bill expected to be submitted to the State Duma in May 2026 would require any website or app with more than 5 million users to embed a government-curated news widget on their platform. There is no opt-out for users, and companies face immediate blocking for non-compliance.

The project is called the "National Information Platform." Spearheaded by the Ministry of Digital Development and VK, the Kremlin-linked holding run by the son of Presidential Administration First Deputy Chief Sergey Kiriyenko, it would mandate that the top five news stories displayed in the widget come exclusively from a vetted list of "reliable" outlets approved by the Cabinet of Ministers. For other platforms, the requirement would be a prominent button linking to a list of 15 state-sanctioned materials.

"The state is no longer just blocking what you shouldn't see; it is now forcing you to see what they want you to see, everywhere you go," a Moscow-based media expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Kontur.

The platforms subject to the law span virtually all of Russian digital life -- from e-commerce giants Ozon and Wildberries to search engines and social networks.

From censorship to mandatory exposure

Russia's digital crackdown did not begin here. Since the 2010s, the federal media regulator Roskomnadzor has blacklisted websites under the guise of protecting citizens from drug abuse, suicide and child exploitation. In practice, those powers have been used to block support resources, help forums and Wikipedia entries.

The 2019 "Sovereign Internet" Law marked a turning point, requiring internet service providers to install state-controlled monitoring hardware at their facilities. The infrastructure enables real-time traffic filtering, surveillance and selective throttling of content.

"The 'sovereign internet' refers to a model of internet governance where a state seeks to tightly control digital infrastructure, data flows, and online content within its borders," Anastasiya Zhyrmont, policy manager for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at the digital rights group Access Now, told Al Jazeera in March.

The National Information Platform takes that logic further. The state has moved from blocking what citizens should not see to requiring them to see what the government wants -- on every platform, every time.

A $1.78 billion information offensive

The initiative carries significant financial weight. Russia's 2026 federal budget allocates 146 billion RUB ($1.78 billion) to state television, news agencies and online propaganda projects -- a 7% increase over 2025 and 28% above pre-war 2021 levels. That includes 25.96 billion RUB ($317 million) for the Institute for Internet Development, which focuses specifically on youth-oriented online propaganda.

Analysts describe the shift as a move from a defensive censorship model to an offensive cognitive warfare strategy, embedding state messaging into the commercial fabric of everyday digital life.

'Carbon copy of China'

Online reaction, largely confined to surviving free forums and social media comment sections, has mixed dark humor with genuine alarm. Comparisons to George Orwell's 1984 and China's "Great Firewall" have been widespread.

"This is just a carbon copy of China," user Dmitry Uz wrote on Facebook.

User Grigorij Chebanov drew a pointed historical analogy, comparing the platform to Soviet-era mandatory radio broadcasts: "In every apartment and other housing, it's necessary to connect a radio broadcast and have it work at high volume round the clock without the possibility of turning it off and to trumpet-trumpet-trumpet, in order to hammer into heads that there is no better world than where Russians live."

For Russian tech companies, the law presents a dilemma. Non-compliance means immediate blocking and effective exclusion from the Russian market.

The OSW Centre for Eastern Studies has noted that tightening online controls is already generating friction within the Russian elite and among the politically disengaged middle class. Their daily digital lives are increasingly burdened by mandatory state interfaces. The most prominent example is the state-backed messenger app Max, which authorities required to be preinstalled on all smartphones sold in the country and which reached 77.5 million monthly users by February 2026.

As the National Information Platform moves toward adoption, the Russian internet is transforming from a window to the world into a mirror of state ideology -- mandatory, inescapable and permanently on.