Russia Sets Tech Collection Fees: Smartphones from 250 Rubles, Laptops from 500 Rubles Starting December 2026
The Russian Minpromtorg has published draft rates for a new technological collection fee covering smartphones, laptops, and various telephone devices. The obligation to pay the fee starts on 1 December 2026, and the exact amount will depend on whether a specific model is recorded in the state marking information system.
Under the proposed regulation, the base rate for a laptop is set at 746 rubles. Registered models listed in the marking system will incur a reduced fee of 500 rubles, while unregistered devices will be charged 992 rubles. The same 33 percent discount and surcharge logic applies to smartphones: 373 rubles base, 250 rubles for registered models, and 496 rubles for unregistered units.
Lower rates are established for landline equipment. Corded telephones with wireless handsets will face fees ranging from 100 to 198 rubles, ordinary mobile phones from 50 to 100 rubles, and other telephone apparatus from 25 to 49 rubles. These figures correspond to base rates of 149, 75, and 37 rubles respectively, adjusted according to registration status.
The ministry calculated the rates using the median customs value of equipment imported in 2025 together with a projected inflation target of 4 percent. Although producers and importers are formally responsible for remitting the collection, analysts expect the costs to be passed on to end consumers through increased retail prices.
Related articles
Developer Creates Personal Task Manager Allowing Claude Code and OpenCode Agents to Autonomously Execute Marked Tasks
A developer has built a personal task management system at shar8.app that integrates directly with AI coding agents including Claude Code, Codex CLI, and OpenCode through the Model Context Protocol. Tasks marked with an 'Agent' flag are automatically picked up by scheduled agent runs, executed locally on the user's machine, and results are written back into the task notes for human review. The system supports both browser-based OAuth authentication and persistent bearer tokens for headless cron or CLI usage, with strict separation between human-initiated and agent-initiated actions. Security measures include treating task text as untrusted data rather than instructions, disabling all tools by default, and requiring explicit allow-lists for any external actions such as web search. The implementation uses a custom MCP server exposing fifteen specific tools for listing, creating, editing, and delegating tasks, while a companion plugin for Claude Code handles scheduled execution via native system schedulers like launchd and systemd timers. The author emphasizes that agents never assign work to themselves and that final task closure always remains with the human user.
T-Bank Warns Customers of Payment and Transfer Outages
On November 3, T-Bank notified users that payments and transfers may fail due to ongoing technical issues. The bank placed an in-app message stating that the problems are being fixed. Clients confirmed the disruption through reports to Interfax, noting that the online banking interface displays the warning upon login. The outage affects only payments and transfers, while other banking services remain available. No details were provided regarding the root cause, the number of impacted users, or an estimated time for full recovery. Monitoring service DETECTOR404 also recorded the incident, aligning with user complaints and the bank's official notice.
Rostelecom Refactors InfoSec Careers: Matching Employee Skills to Evolving Business Priorities
Rostelecom's information security block developed a systematic approach to reassess employee expertise and redirect talent to new roles when business structures change rapidly. In one case, an architect hired for a specific team was reassigned after the unit was disbanded, initially moving to a similar position that did not fully align with his broader competencies. HR-business partner Olga Lapshina examined the specialist's full background, including prior work in audits, methodology development, regulatory documentation, university teaching, and scientific research, plus strong mentoring abilities with younger staff. These skills matched the needs of the methodology department, leading to a transfer supported by an individual development plan and a mentor via the internal Tochka Rosta platform. Within two months the employee contributed improvements that accelerated preliminary InfoSec audits by 30 percent and risk assessments by 20 percent while expanding threat scenario coverage by 10 percent. The initiative demonstrates Rostelecom's emphasis on horizontal career movement and retention of experienced professionals through structured career tracks.
How to Avoid Becoming the Hero of 'My Program Deleted 800 GB': Safe Recursive Deletion in Bash and Python
A recent Habr article examines dangerous patterns in recursive file deletion scripts that have caused massive data loss incidents, including an 800 GB wipe triggered by Telegram Desktop on Windows. The piece analyzes classic mistakes such as empty variables in rm commands and extra spaces that turned single paths into multiple destructive arguments, referencing the 2015 Steam Linux bug and the 2011 Bumblebee installer error. It provides hardened Bash templates using set -euo pipefail, ${VAR:?} checks, realpath validation, and --one-file-system flags to prevent deletion of forbidden directories or symlinked targets. The Python section introduces a safe_rmtree wrapper that enforces root boundaries, rejects symlinks, uses resolve(strict=True), and checks shutil.rmtree.avoids_symlink_attacks before proceeding. Additional recommendations include dry-run modes, marker files, temporary directory usage, and logging to make deletion operations auditable and reversible where possible.