What happened?

Vladimir Putin has signed a new law on “protecting” the Russian language. Set to take effect on March 1, 2026, the law will regulate publicly available, consumer-facing information about goods and services — including signage, labels, posters, shop windows, and other promotional materials.

Many media outlets reported that the law effectively bans foreign-language signage and would require businesses to translate all consumer information into Russian. But in reality, the law doesn’t explicitly prohibit the use of Anglicisms, and its vague wording leaves room for businesses to decide for themselves how — or whether — to include foreign terms.

Wait — didn’t lawmakers want to ban English words?

Yes, the original draft of the bill did include some rather strict language.

The legislation to protect the Russian language was first introduced in the State Duma at the end of 2023 by a group of lawmakers, including Yelena Yampolskaya (who became a presidential adviser on cultural issues last year), the singer Denis Maidanov, and Alexander Khinshtein (who stepped down from parliament in December 2024 and was appointed governor of the Kursk region).

Under the initial proposal, businesses would have been required to use Russian (and other official languages of the Russian Federation) on storefronts, informational displays, posters, sales announcements, business hours, and other consumer-facing materials. Foreign languages — especially English — would only be permitted as a secondary addition, appearing alongside an identical Russian version. The original wording also prohibited using Anglicisms in the names of products or services, even if a Russian translation appeared in small print, off to the side, or in parentheses.

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“The use of signage and displays with [English] words like ‘coffee,’ ‘fresh,’ ‘sale,’ ‘shop,’ or ‘open’ must be made impossible,” the bill’s authors wrote. They also proposed requiring television and radio broadcasters to eliminate foreign words and phrases from their programming.

In an explanatory note, the lawmakers said their aim was to foster a “nationally oriented environment” and to shield the Russian language from “the use of foreign words in public spaces.” President Vladimir Putin backed the initiative at the time. In February 2025, the State Duma passed the bill in its first reading.

So when did the bill get changed?

Just days before its second and third readings in June 2025. The revisions were first flagged by Agentstvo and Faridaily.

Under pressure from both businesses and the government, lawmakers rewrote or entirely removed many of the bill’s most controversial provisions. In its official review, the government warned that banning foreign words on product labels would contradict the Civil Code and existing technical regulations on food labeling, while also creating “legal uncertainty.” Retailers and e-commerce companies also pointed out that the bill could force businesses to spend billions of rubles updating signage and consumer materials.

The final version of the bill retained a series of declarative statements about the cultural value of “the norms of modern Russian literary language” but included very few concrete restrictions on the use of foreign words.

Technically, the law permits the use of foreign words if there is no commonly used Russian equivalent — though the words must appear in a government-approved normative dictionary.

The text no longer prohibits Anglicisms in advertising or Latin script in signage. The only remaining (and notably vague) requirement for businesses is that their materials must “conform to the norms of modern Russian literary language.”

The restrictions also do not apply to registered trademarks. And if a company name is listed in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities in Latin script, it can still be used on signage.

Lawmakers also removed a clause that would have imposed liability for passing laws or regulations “aimed at restricting the use of Russian as the state language.”

So were any restrictions left in the final law?

Yes.

Starting in 2026, developers will no longer be allowed to use Latin script in the names of newly built residential complexes. While not exactly a widespread issue — developers estimate that only about seven percent of housing complexes currently feature foreign words in their names — the law still targets the practice. That said, foreign words will still be permitted if written in Cyrillic. In its review, the government emphasized the need to allow for this exception.

At the same time, lawmakers removed an amendment to the Urban Development Code that would have required the use of Russian (or other official languages of the Russian Federation) in naming publicly funded facilities and infrastructure at the federal, regional, and local levels.

Does this mean Russian lawmakers will back off from policing foreign words?

Not likely. Russian politicians and officials appear poised to continue their symbolic campaign against foreign borrowings in the Russian language.

Just ahead of the bill’s second and third readings, Olga Kazakova, chair of the State Duma’s Committee on Culture, warned that lawmakers would keep working on new “restrictions on foreign words in commerce.” In early June 2025, Vladimir Putin also called for purging what he described as “vulgar borrowings that pollute and distort our language.” He emphasized the need for more frequent use of Cyrillic in public spaces.

At the same time, one of the bill’s original co-authors, Yelena Yampolskaya, described the law’s passage as a “victory.” According to her, the “standoff — right up to the final minutes before the vote — was hellish.” Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower house of parliament, claimed the new law would supposedly help shield Russia from “the influence of the West and [George] Soros.”