Russian Premier Vladimir Putin signed a new "right to be forgotten" law, which becomes effective Jan. 1, 2016 in Russia. People in Russia have a right to request search engines to remove links to stories generated by a search of their names if the information (1) violates Russian law, (2) is false, or (3) “become outdated due to later events or actions of the individual.”  Excluded from such requests are criminal activity for which the statute of limitations has not expired and convictions for which the punishment has been completed or removed. The articles remain online; only the links to the articles are removed from searches of the person's name.

Unlike the EU right to be forgotten, the Russian law sets forth a time frame of 10 days for search engines to respond to a person's RTBF request.  If the search engines fails to respond within 10 days, the person can seek a court order.  [More from Global Voices and the Runet]