Putin instructed to oblige banks to return stolen money in case of hacking of the application.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the Russian government to jointly oblige banks to return stolen funds to customers in case of hacking of banking applications. The relevant decree was published on the Kremlin's website on April 1.

"To develop a unified systematic approach <...> to establish the obligation of credit institutions to refund funds to customers, as well as other measures of responsibility for credit institutions in the event of theft of customer funds using credit institutions' applications hacked by malicious software installed on customers' devices," the document says.

A report on the implementation of this assignment should be submitted by June 1, 2025. The head of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, Elvira Nabiullina, and the Prime Minister of Russia, Mikhail Mishustin, were appointed responsible.

Putin also instructed the Russian government, together with the State Duma, to speed up the adoption of laws prohibiting the conclusion of banking contracts with minors without the consent of guardians. The report must be submitted no later than July 15, 2025.

Alarm bells: Putin declared unacceptable scale of fraud in the Russian Federation

What measures do the Cabinet of Ministers and the Central Bank propose to protect citizens from cybercriminals?

On the same day, Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov proposed setting limits on the issuance of bank cards at the legislative level and regulating the activities of realtors through which fraudsters quickly sell apartments of victims. The relevant proposals have been sent to the Security Council of the Russian Federation.

Earlier, on March 5, Putin said that telephone and Internet fraud in Russia had acquired unacceptable proportions. The President noted that it is necessary to take measures to solve this problem quickly.