The Ministry of Internal Affairs supported the initiative to recognize AI as an aggravating factor in crimes

The Russian Interior Ministry has supported the initiative of the Investigative Committee of Russia to introduce amendments to the Criminal Code that recognize the use of artificial intelligence (AI) as an aggravating factor in crimes. This was announced on June 26 by Danil Filippov, Deputy head of the investigative department of the department, at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum.

63 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Circumstances aggravating punishment"). In its current version, it contains an extensive list of factors that increase the sentence: from the recurrence of crimes and the onset of serious consequences after them to actions as part of a group of individuals and special cruelty. However, there is no mention of AI in the text of the article.

"We share the position of the Investigative Committee. <...> Maybe there was a controversy at some initial stage, but, nevertheless, our position is this: we need to make [an addition on AI to Article 63 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation] and that's it," TASS quoted Filippov as saying.

He added that with a different version of the legal formalization of responsibility for the use of AI, it would be necessary to "change the half-code."

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Filippov said on June 24 that deepfake avatars, which allow simulating a person's voice and appearance in real time, have become the most dangerous tool of fraudsters. According to him, attackers actively use AI technologies to create realistic images of people they know and communicate with victims in real time. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, since the beginning of 2026, about 4 thousand people have become victims of such crimes, which is about 4% of the total number of frauds.