MOSCOW, August 8Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law aimed at combating financial pyramids. The document is posted on the portal of official publication of legal acts.
The need to adopt the law is due to the fact that the problem of financial pyramids in the country is still relevant, explained one of its authors, Vice Speaker of the Federation Council Nikolai Zhuravlev. This has a negative impact on the Russian financial market, can lead to the loss of funds of a significant part of the population, and also undermines citizens' trust in financial instruments, he emphasized. 
For To suppress the illegal attraction of investments from individuals, the document amends the laws “On consumer cooperation (consumer societies, their unions) in the Russian Federation” and “On the protection of the rights and legitimate interests of investors in the securities market.”
Previously, consumer societies had the right to attract funds from shareholders and other persons. The new law allows such societies to attract borrowed funds only from shareholders and legal entities that are not shareholders. But this restriction will not apply to consumer societies participating in the experiment on partner financing (Islamic banking), which has been carried out since September 2023 in Bashkiria, Dagestan, Tatarstan and Chechnya.
The law limits the ability to attract investments from citizens. According to the adopted norms, this will be possible for organizations supervised by the Central Bank — these are banks, financial, insurance companies, and so on.
And if a company is not supervised by the regulator, it will be able to attract funds from individuals only within the framework of the legislation on the securities market, investment funds and mortgage securities. That is, such companies will have to offer investors shares, bonds and other securities specified in the legislation in exchange for their funds.
These restrictions do not apply to relations related to the issue and circulation of digital rights, transactions using financial and investment platforms.
The law comes into force on the day of its official publication.