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Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) no longer intends to add digital platforms, marketplaces, developers of trusted Russian software and AI technologies, or data-centre operators to its list of strategic activities, Vedomosti reports citing amendments prepared by the FAS to the law governing foreign investment in companies of strategic significance for defence and security.

In the latest version of the amendments, dated 23 July, it is proposed to add to the strategic list activities involving the technical protection of confidential information, and operators of cryptocurrency-mining infrastructure.

Classifying an industry as strategic means that companies in it must obtain approval from the government commission for monitoring foreign investment for any deal with a foreign investor.

Although marketplaces, digital platforms and the like will remain non-strategic, the FAS is retaining the right to suspend a deal with a foreign investor during a mandatory review. It may also submit a request to the chair of the government commission. This does not rule out oversight but should make the procedure simpler, CNews notes.

In analysts' view, keeping these sectors off the strategic list will help those relocating corporate centres to "friendly" jurisdictions such as Kyrgyzstan or the United Arab Emirates. At the same time, foreign companies that still operate on the Russian market and legally supply software would have lost the ability to do business there had the amendments been adopted in their initial form, said Evgeny Borisov, a partner at the investment firm Kama Flow.