Russian bank staff and branches could be joining the fight against Ukrainian drone attacks under an ambitious plan approved by the country’s lower house of parliament.
The banks would bear the cost of installing electronic jamming systems on their premises while selected employees would also shoot down incoming drones, according to the draft bill passed in its third and final reading Tuesday.
The bill, which state news agency Interfax said was first presented last August and later expanded in scope, must still be approved by the upper house Federation Council and signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin before coming into force.
Russia is finding it hard to protect its large land mass from a growing number of attacks by increasingly sophisticated Ukrainian long-range drones. Smaller drones are also holding back Russian troops along the 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line and disrupting the supply lines of Russia’s invading army, Western analysts and officials say.
Russian banks are not known to have been a prime target for Ukrainian drones over the past four years of war that followed Moscow's invasion.
With little detail included in the bill, it raised multiple questions about how such a project would work.
The widespread installation of equipment and the training of staff in how to use it would require a huge organizational effort.
The plan encompasses Russia’s central bank and other top institutions, including majority state-owned Sberbank. Since there are banks in almost every town, their incorporation in air defenses could help expand Russia’s cover.
With Putin keen to shield Russians from the war, the step could work against his efforts by involving regular citizens in the war and making the consequences of the invasion more visible.
Under the law passed in its second and third reading by the Duma, bank employees may jam or intercept drone control signals, and damage or destroy uncrewed aerial, underwater and ground vehicles threatening their facilities, without waiting for a response from security services.
“Jamming will be used to make it more difficult for (the drones) to target and attack the relevant targets,” Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, told Russian media outlet RBK. “Plus, we’ll also use means to shoot down these drones, thereby protecting the relevant targets.”
Each organization will determine which employees are authorized to deploy the measures.
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