Russia’s new AI committee could be led by a lawmaker who helped write the country’s original ‘foreign agents’ law
United Russia leader Dmitry Medvedev said the next State Duma would have a committee on digital development and artificial intelligence.
The party has nominated Alexander Sidyakin to chair the committee, Medvedev said. Sidyakin, 48, previously served three terms in the State Duma and has headed United Russia’s central executive committee since 2021.
A source told Vedomosti that the committee would handle technological development issues in “various parts of the new economy: online marketplaces, drones, and artificial intelligence.” It would also oversee creative industries, the source said.
In 2012, Sidyakin was a principal author of a bill that would designate Russian NGOs as “foreign agents” if they engaged in political activity and received funding from abroad. “There are two options here — either speculate about payments worth millions from foreign ministries, supposedly meant to promote democracy, and get outraged, or give foreign agents legal status and regard them unequivocally as advancing other countries’ interests,” he said at the time, according to Interfax.
Sidyakin also sponsored a bill to increase fines sharply for violations at rallies, to as much as 1.5 million rubles. The bill passed after the May 6 protests on Bolotnaya Square.
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