Under the proposal, owners would have two weeks after importing a device to register it through the Gosuslugi government services portal. The ministry said phones left unregistered after that period would no longer be served by operators' networks.
The ministry confirmed the initiative to RBC, which reported it citing three sources. It said the rule would affect people who bought a phone while traveling or acquired a counterfeit device.
IMEI is a unique 15-digit number that a manufacturer assigns to each handset. An operator sees it every time a device connects to the network.
Phones that were already operating on Russian networks before April 2027 will not be subject to the requirement, regardless of how they were imported. Legally imported batches will be entered into the database automatically, through customs and network connection.
The IMEI database is part of the second package of measures to combat cyber fraud, known as "Antifraud 2.0," which Vladimir Putin signed in June. The law left the rules for the database's operation and the procedure for entering numbers to the government. According to The Bell, registration of phones imported from abroad was voluntary in the first draft of the resolution, published in late June.
Citing RBC's sources, a new version of the document allows for paid registration. In June, the Digital Development Ministry promised that no money would be charged for entering an IMEI into the database; the ministry now declines to comment on the matter.
The ministry justified the measure as a fight against those who import smartphones one at a time for resale. Each device in the database will be assigned one of three statuses: "allowed," "prohibited" or "not registered." Prohibited devices will include stolen and lost smartphones, handsets restricted by a court decision, and devices that fail to meet safety requirements.
Alexei Fedorov, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry's council for e-commerce development, estimated that the requirement could drive up to 70% of sellers working with "grey" imports off the market and push smartphone prices up by as much as 40% relative to the cheapest offers.