Russian intends to introduce fingerprinting for all foreign nationals entering the Russian Federation for more than a month beginning on July 1, 2019.
Citing Russian First Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Gorovoy, some Russian media reports say the Interior Ministry has already submitted the draft law on mandatory fingerprinting of all foreign nationals entering the Russian Federation for consideration to the State Duma (Russia’s lower house of parliament).
Under this federal law, 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.
The introduction of fingerprinting procedure reportedly allows controlling the arrival of foreign citizens in Russia.
According to the Russian Interior Ministry, the fingerprint system helped to identify about 26,000 foreign citizens who tried to enter Russia illegally, using fake documents or other personal details.
Under the current Russian 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.
