AI and VPN will become aggravating circumstances under all articles of the Criminal Code. The Investigative Committee is preparing a draft law.
Russia's Investigative Committee has prepared a draft law that could seriously change sentencing practices. The use of artificial intelligence, VPNs, and other information and communication technologies is proposed to be established as an aggravating circumstance under virtually all articles of the Criminal Code.
This is not only about fraud or illegal data trafficking. According to the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, the norm will also apply to serious crimes — up to terrorism and murder, if technologies helped commit the crime or significantly increase the damage.
What this means in practice
Currently, VPN is already taken into account as an aggravating circumstance, but in limited cases — for example, when accessing blocked resources within specific offenses. The new bill aims to make the approach systematic.
If AI was used to generate phishing emails, forge documents, plan an attack, or conceal traces — this will work against the defendant. The same applies to VPN and proxies if they were used specifically to facilitate a crime, not just "for anonymity."
Important: this is not about banning the technologies themselves. AI and VPN do not become crimes by themselves. They become aggravating circumstances only when it is proven that they specifically helped commit or scale up an unlawful act.
Why this is logical from an IT and legal perspective
Technologies are indeed changing the nature of crimes. Fraud using neural networks already makes it possible to create convincing deepfakes and mass attacks. VPN and proxies complicate identifying individuals and gathering evidence. The legislator is trying to close this gap.
However, questions of law enforcement remain. How exactly will they prove that AI "increased the damage"? Where is the line between ordinary use of ChatGPT and deliberate application for a crime? These details will determine how effectively the norm works, rather than turning into a tool of expansive interpretation.
For now, the bill is only being prepared. But the direction is already clear: the state wants to respond more harshly to digital tools in the hands of criminals. And those who work with data, AI, and anonymization tools should closely monitor the wording of the final version.
