The Russian State Duma has effectively banned Starlink equipment
The State Duma of the Russian Federation has adopted legislative amendments that significantly tighten regulations governing the use of equipment for connecting to foreign satellite communication systems, including Starlink. The relevant provisions are included in the “Anti-Fraud 2.0” package of anti-fraud bills, which lawmakers supported in the second and third readings.
Under the new rules, the sale of devices for which the Russian Federal Radio Frequency Commission has not allocated the appropriate frequency bands will be prohibited on Russian territory.
According to Igor Bederov, head of the information and analytical research department at T.Hunter, foreign satellite terminals allow users to access the internet outside of Russia’s traffic control system and bypass mechanisms that block prohibited content.
Formally, the new restrictions apply to a wide range of foreign satellite networks. These include Globalstar satellite phones, broadband terminals from the low-Earth orbit constellations Starlink and OneWeb, as well as the promising Chinese systems Guanang and Guang Research.
However, experts note that the main target of these measures is the equipment of the American Starlink system, which provides network access independent of Russian communications infrastructure.
In addition to restrictions on the sale of equipment, the law provides for the inclusion in the registry of banned websites of online resources that offer such devices for sale. This is intended to make it more difficult for Russian users to access foreign-made satellite terminals.
The new measures are part of a policy to tighten control over the Russian Federation’s information space and combat the ability to circumvent state restrictions on the internet.
This is reported by Russian media.
Earlier, the Russian aerospace company “Bureau 1440” lost one of the first production satellites of the “Svitanok” (“Rassvet”) communications system, launched into orbit in March 2026.
One of the satellites of the Russian “Rassvet” satellite internet system, which is positioned in Russia as an analogue of Starlink, malfunctioned almost immediately after launch and burned up in Earth’s atmosphere.
