In April 2016 Irina Yarovaya, together with Aleksei Pushkov, and Nadezhda Gerasimova and senator Victor Ozerov introduced a project of legislation that would toughen penalties for extremism and terrorism.

[4] Amendments that require telecom operators to store recordings of phone conversations, text messages and users' internet traffic up to 6 months were announced to come into force on July 1, 2018.

However, senator Anton Belyakov has submitted a proposal to move the regulations' effective date to 2023, because of the extreme amount of data storage technology needed to meet the requirements.

[11] The amendments add a new provision to Russia's Religion Legislation, stating that "missionary activity" may only be performed "without hindrance" at churches and other religious sites designated by the chapter.

It is carried out directly by religious associations or by citizens and/or legal entities authorised by them, publicly, with the help of the media, the internet or other lawful means".

[17][18] Implementation of the law by other delivery and freight services was estimated to cost around 180 billion rubles, which is projected to cause 30–40% drop in online number of purchases.

Donald and Ruth Ossewaarde, independent missionaries working in Oryol, were fined 40,000 rubles (around $700), prompting the couple to leave the country; Sergei Zhuravlyov, a Ukrainian Reformed Orthodox Church of Christ representative, was arrested for engaging in preaching in St. Petersburg; and Ebenezer Tuah of Ghana, the leader of the Christ Embassy church, was arrested and fined 50,000 rubles for conducting baptisms at a sanatorium.

[22] On 9 July 2016, Jim Mulcahy, a 72-year-old American pastor who is the Eastern European coordinator for the U.S.-based Metropolitan Community Church, was arrested and deported under the prohibition of missionary activities at non-religious sites, after advertising and holding a "tea party" in Samara with an LGBT group.

[13][23][24] Russia's largest telecommunication and internet companies expressed their concerns regarding the negative impacts of the law on their businesses and on the Russian economy on the whole.

Putin's own human rights head, Mikhail Fedotov, called upon the Senators of Russia’s Federal Council to reject the bill.

"[31] The EFF wrote that because Russia's ISPs, messaging services, and social media platforms "cannot reasonably comply with all the demands of the Yarovaya package, they become de facto criminals whatever their actions.