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Much has happened since protecting money was “just” a matter of putting it in a safe.
Protecting a bank used to mean locking up the vault and hiring security guards for the front door.
But in an era of high-tech warfare, modern financial institutions are finding that the biggest threats to their money might actually come from above.
Russian lawmakers have now officially cleared the path for the country’s biggest financial giants to build their own private air defenses
Fighting the sky
Under a new piece of legislation, major banks can now shoot down incoming drones without waiting for a green light from local authorities.
The State Duma passed the law through its final readings this week, news agency RBC reports.
The new rules give the Russian Central Bank and Sberbank the direct authority to intercept and destroy unmanned vehicles of all kinds, including aerial drones, remote-controlled boats, and automated land rovers.
Initially, the plan started quite small. When officials first introduced the bill back in August 2025, it only aimed to protect armored cash-collection trucks on the road. However, politicians expanded the scope significantly over the last several months to shield entire buildings and mailing networks.
Before the law goes into full effect, it still needs to pass a vote in the Federation Council and get a signature from the president. Given the current political climate, those final steps are widely viewed as a simple formality.
Paying the bill
Security teams at these financial hubs will be handed serious weapons and high-tech tools to fight off potential strikes. To keep threats away, the banks plan to set up specialized electronic defense systems directly outside their offices.
According to RBC, Anatoly Aksakov, the head of the Duma’s financial markets committee, explained that guards will rely on a mix of radio interference and traditional force to keep the peace.
“Firstly, jamming will be used to make it more difficult for [the UAVs] to target and attack the relevant targets, that is, to suppress all possible signals. Plus, we’ll also use means to shoot down these drones, thereby protecting the relevant targets,” Aksakov stated.
None of this new security hardware will come out of the government budget. The law makes it clear that the financial organizations must foot the bill for their own military-grade protection. “They’ll pay for it themselves. If it’s the Central Bank, then the Central Bank will pay; if it’s Sberbank, then Sberbank will pay,” Aksakov added.
Sources: RBC Radio, State Duma database
