Russia to introduce mandatory fingerprinting for foreigners

According to the First Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Gorovoy, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs submitted to the State Duma the draft federal law on mandatory fingerprinting of all foreign nationals entering the Russian Federation; the procedure will be implemented at Russian airports and railway stations.

“The Ministry of Internal Affairs submitted to the State Duma a federal law after the adoption of which all foreign nationals (including citizens of the Eurasian Union) crossing the Russian border with any purpose of visit will be fingerprinted and photographed upon registration either at the address of the place of residence or at the address of their place of stay in the country”, – A. Gorovoy announced at a meeting in the Federation Council. Nevertheless, the bill has not yet been registered in the legislative database of the State Duma.

The introduction of fingerprinting procedure allows to control the arrival of foreign citizens to Russia. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, last year, the fingerprint system helped to identify about 26,000 foreign citizens who tried to enter Russia using fake documents or other personal details. As noted A. Gorovoy, the work on tightening control over the regime of foreigners' arrival in the country will be continued.

According to the current legislation, the biometric registration is mandatory for certain categories of Russian citizens (servicemen, FSB officers, rescuers, aircraft crew members, employees of private security and others) as well as for citizens of some foreign states applying for Russian visa or obtaining a work permit or a patent to work in the Russian Federation.