Putin signs new state procurement law letting officials swap goods and change countries of origin to protect suppliers from sanctions

On Aug. 4, Vladimir Putin signed a law changing the rules for state and municipal procurement in Russia. Government customers will now be allowed to replace goods specified in a contract with their equivalents, change the country of origin, increase the value of contracts with an undefined volume, and sign several small contracts with the same supplier.

Starting in 2027, Russian authorities will also be able to buy up to 30% more medicines, medical devices, and consumables from an existing supplier without holding a new tender.

In public, the amendments were presented mainly as a way to simplify procurement for Russia’s regions. But an expert on Russian state procurement who spoke to The Insider noted that the new rules apply to all state and municipal customers, including federal agencies. In the expert’s assessment, many of the amendments close gaps in Federal Law 44-FZ, Russia’s main law governing public procurement, which previously had to be bypassed through supplemental agreements.

“The main changes take effect Oct. 1, 2026, except for the rule on splitting contracts, which takes effect from the date of publication and applies retroactively,” the expert said. “Although the bill was publicly linked to simplifying procurement for Russian regions, in reality it applies to all customers at any level, including federal and municipal ones. Here is what will change:

1. Goods may now be replaced during the execution of contract. If a supplier cannot deliver a specific brand due to sanctions or logistical disruptions, it may offer an equivalent with the same characteristics. Changing the country of origin is now also allowed, subject to the national regime. Law 44-FZ did not account for the possibility that the same product could be manufactured at different production sites — for example, the same model of printer may be produced in Vietnam and Malaysia. A supplier previously could not list all possible production locations in its bid, making it formally impossible to change the country of origin of the goods. In practice, parties had to invent supplemental agreements that claimed a fictitious improvement in the product’s characteristics. That problem in the law’s legal drafting has now been resolved.
2. For medicines, medical devices, and consumables, the option to increase the volume by 30% becomes a permanent rule. But lawmakers have specified that the price can be changed only once. Cascade supplemental agreements within the 10% price increase limit — for example, first by 3%, then by another 2% — will no longer be allowed during the execution of a contract, and that is completely illogical.
3. The price of a volume-free contract — when a product is being purchased but the exact volume of consumption cannot be predicted, such as food for a hospital or spare parts for vehicles — may be increased within 10%. The issue of lowering per-unit prices has not yet been resolved.
4. In requests for quotations, it is now possible to submit protocols of disagreements to contracts. Previously, if procurement documentation contained legal drafting defects, clearly erroneous provisions could not be removed from the contract, and the situation had to be resolved with the customer through supplemental agreements after contracting — something not all customers agreed to. The initial maximum contract price threshold for purchases from small businesses has been raised from 20 million to 30 million rubles. That is consistent with the logic of Law 44-FZ and the current economic realities.
5. In closed procurements carried out by decision of a medical commission, trade names may now be specified. The period for approving a contract with a single supplier has been shortened from eight to five working days. That is also a clear step forward compared with the previous rules in this area.
6. The law now directly establishes that several contracts with one supplier are permissible as part of small purchases. This removes the risk of accusations of contract splitting in cases where one large procurement procedure objectively cannot be held. Since unintentional contract splitting often led to cases before the Federal Antimonopoly Service — and even criminal cases, especially in state defense procurement contracts — the situation is moving toward greater logic and legal justification.”

The amendments were initiated by Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko. In early July, she proposed temporarily suspending Law 44-FZ, or at least some of its provisions, saying corrupt officials had learned to circumvent the law while conscientious officials faced difficulties and lost time.

After the amendments were adopted, Matviyenko said they would “significantly ease” the work of regional leaders, adding that a working group would be created to prepare further changes to the public procurement law.