Federal Law No. 374 allows Russian security services to request that internet companies hand over their encryption keys. Firms who do not comply with these orders risk having their services blocked in the country, as happened to the messaging app Telegram which remained blocked in Russia for approximately 2 years. Other messaging apps, such as Zello, BlackBerry Messenger, Imo, Line, and Vchat were blocked for the same reason.

Federal Law of July 29, 2004 on Commercial Secrecy and Russian Civil Code provide a framework for the effective protection of trade secrets. The Civil Code (Part 4) regulates issues associated with trade secrets. Any unlawful use of a trade secret, including unlawful receipt or disclosure of the trade secret, constitutes trade secret infringement. Additionally, the Federal Law of July 29, 2004 on Commercial Secrecy defines trade secrets as any type of information (e.g. production, technological, economic, organizational, etc.) that is not generally known, to which the general public does not have open access, and with respect to which the owner of such information has instituted the regime of trade secrecy.

Russia has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty.

It is reported that inadequate and inefficient protection and enforcement of IP rights as well as online copyrights remain a persistent challenge in Russia. There are several Russian websites that facilitate online piracy and the widespread practice of piracy by online platforms of video games, music, movies, books, journal articles, and television shows continues to be in place. Moreover, the rate of unlicensed software installation in the country was 62% in 2017 (above the 57% rate of the Central and Eastern European countries), for an estimated commercial value of USD 1,291 million.

Russia has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.

Russia is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). However, the country does not consider itself bound by Art. 59 related to disputes.

The country has a copyright regime under Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and Federal Law No. 231-FZ "On the enactment of part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation". However, the exceptions do not follow the fair use or fair dealing model, therefore limiting the lawful use of copyrighted work by others. The Art. 1273 allows reproduction of a lawfully disclosed work when necessary and for purely personal purposes, without paying royalties and getting the consent of the author of the work except for architectural works, databases and computer programs, among others. The rest of provisions in the above/mentioned articles (Arts. 1274-1280) allow, subject to the terms and conditions laid down therein:
- use of copyrighted works for informational, scientific, educational and cultural purposes;
- use of copyrighted photographic works, works of architecture and works of art which are permanently located at a place freely available to the public;
- use of musical works in the official or religious ceremonies;
- use of copyrighted works for the purposes of law enforcement;
- recording of copyrighted works by broadcasting organisations for the short-term usage;
- making changes to software and databases for the purposes of functioning; archiving the copy of software and database and de-compilation of software.

The Russian Government has adopted a decree which will allow local companies and individuals to use inventions, utility models and industrial designs held by owners from “unfriendly countries” without their consent and without paying any compensation. This includes, among others, all members of the European Union and the United States.
The decree is based on art. 1360 of the Russian Civil Code, which allows the government to use inventions, utility models and industrial designs without the consent of the patent holder when this is justified by extreme needs of national defense and security or protection of life or public health.

According to amendments introduced in 2020 to the Law on Mass Media, a foreign legal entity that disseminates information and materials (including via Internet) by audio or audiovisual means while receiving financing from a foreign State, State bodies, international organizations or foreign citizens, could be recognized as a foreign mass media performing the functions of a foreign agent. The Russian Ministry of Justice maintains a register of such foreign mass media agents. These foreign mass media agents can disseminate information and materials only through locally incorporated legal entity and only with a special note indicating that such information has been created and disseminated by a foreign agent. If the respective mass media does not comply with legal requirements, its transmissions shall be blocked in the Russia.

According to Article 1247 of the Civil Code, foreign legal entities shall carry out their dealings with the federal executive power body charged with intellectual property matters, meaning Federal Service for Intellectual Property (Rospatent) through patent attorneys registered with Rospatent, unless otherwise envisaged by an international treaty of the Russian Federation.
Previously, Art. 15 of the Patent Law of Russian Federation No. 3517-1 required individuals with permanent residence outside the Russian Federation, or foreign legal entities or their patent attorneys shall deal with the Federal executive authority on intellectual property through patent attorneys, registered with the Federal executive authority on intellectual property. This Article was replaced from 1 January 2008 by Part IV of the Civil Code.

A foreign investor must notify the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of any transaction that would allow the foreign investor to acquire 5% or more of the shares in a strategic entity. The notification must be delivered to the FAS within 45 days of closing of the relevant transaction.

Amendments to Article 6 of the Law on Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation No. 160 introduced in 18 July 2017 sets out a general foreign investment screening mechanism in Russia. According to Article 6, transactions made by foreign investors in relation to Russian business entities will be subject to prior approval in the manner prescribed by the Federal Law No.57 on Procedures for Foreign Investments in Companies Having Strategic Importance for National Security and Defence to ensure the country's defense and national security. In accordance with the amendments of 2017, the Government Commission for Control over Foreign Investments has powers to determine any obligation to be imposed on foreign investors as conditions for prior approval of a transaction that it considers necessary to safeguard national defence and state security, in addition to obligations set out in Article 12 of the Federal Law No. 57.

According to Art. 6 of the Federal Law No.57, business activities of strategic importance for the national defence and state security which must obtain preliminary approval as provided in the Law include, among others, (i) development and production of encryption (cryptographic) aids, or informational and telecommunication systems protected with encryption (cryptographic) aids that are subject to licensing under the national legislation; (ii) distribution of encryption (cryptographic) aids; (iii) engineering maintenance of encryption (cryptographic) aids; (iv) information encryption services.
Art. 7 of the Law enlists the investment transactions for which a preliminary approval must be obtained. Transactions subject to preliminary approval are the following:
1) transactions resulting in the acquisition by a foreign investor:
a) the right to dispose directly/indirectly of more than 50% (25% or more in case of a company that is of strategic importance and which uses a subsoil area of federal importance) of the total number of votes of the voting stocks (shares) constituting the authorised capital of company of strategic importance;
b) the right to appoint a one-man executive body and/or more than 50% (25% or more in case of a company that is of strategic importance and which uses a subsoil area of federal importance) of the composition of a collective executive body of company.
2) transactions aimed at the acquisition by a foreign investor of the right to dispose directly/indirectly of the stocks (shares) constituting the authorised capital of a business association which has strategic importance and uses a subsoil tract of federal importance, if that foreign investor has the right to directly or indirectly dispose of at least 25 % and up to 75 % of the total number of the votes accounting for the voting stocks (shares) which constitute the authorised capital of such business association;
3) contracts for a foreign investor exercising the functions of the manager (managing organisation) in respect of a company of strategic importance;
4) transactions aimed at acquisition by a foreign state, international organisation, foreign investor that does not supply information or by an organisation controlled by them of the right to dispose directly/indirectly of over 25% of the total number of votes of the voting stocks (shares) constituting the authorised capital of an economic company of strategic importance;
5) other transactions and agreements aimed at the transfer to a foreign investor of the right to determine the decisions of managerial bodies of a company of strategic importance, including the conditions under which it exercises business activities;
6) transactions envisaging the acquisition for ownership, possession or use of property which is classified as property, plant and equipment of a business association of strategic importance and whose value makes up 25 and more per cent of the balance-sheet value of assets of such business association calculated as of the last accounting date according to the data of its accounting (financial) statements;
7) other actions as a result of which a foreign investor acquires the right of defining the decisions of the managerial bodies of the business association of strategic importance, for instance the conditions of its pursuance of entrepreneurial activities.
To date, there are no reports of telecommunication or ICT investments having been blocked by the Russian Government on national interest grounds.

The Law on Mass Media was adopted in 1991 and has been amended many times since then. In January 2016, new amendments concerning the foreign ownership entered into force. According to Article 19-1, a foreign state, an international organization, as well as an organization under their control, a foreign legal entity, a Russian legal entity with foreign participation, a foreign citizen, a stateless person, a citizen of the Russian Federation who has the citizenship of another state, do not have the right to act as a founder (participant) of a mass media organization, be the editorial office of a mass media organization or an organization (legal entity) that carries out broadcasting.
In addition, Article 19-1 prohibits direct or indirect possession, management or control by a foreign state, an international organization, as well as an organization under their control, a foreign legal entity, a Russian legal entity (the share of foreign participation in the authorized capital of which is more than 20%), a foreign citizen, a stateless person, a Russian citizen who has citizenship of another state of more than 20% of shares in the authorized capital of a person who is a participant of the founder company of the mass media organization, the editorial office of the mass media organization or the organization (legal entity) carrying out broadcasting.
This has led to large-scale redistribution of property in the media market and the departure from Russia of a number of major international publishers (e.g. Finnish Sanoma, Axel Springer, the German, the American Dow Jones and FT Group). Other foreign shareholders in the Russian media either reduced their stakes in Russian media or re-registered the ownership in the Russian jurisdiction.

Russia is not a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA). However, the country has been an observer of the WTO GPA since 2013.