Putin supported the proposal to introduce a digital identity card in Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin supported the proposal of the head of the Ministry of Digital Development Maksut Shadayev to introduce a digital identity card on a smartphone in the country instead of a paper passport.

At a meeting with members of the government, Shadayev toldthat in 80% of all cases in everyday life you can do without a paper passport, replacing it with a smartphone. According to him, the Russians will be able to upload a photo from a biometric passport, after which a QR code is generated, which is presented. The minister asked the head of state to instruct his department to develop an appropriate draft decree by May 1.

“Please, the sooner the better,” Putin replied.

The President stressed that such services are in high demand, so it is necessary to accelerate their implementation.

At the end of August 2022 Ministry of Digital Development proposed to launch a service at Gosuslugakh, with the help of which Russians will be able to confirm their identity in everyday situations. The department then noted that the service could be used when making purchases in a store, to confirm the right to free travel, when attending events with entry restrictions, and when entering office centers with a pass system. The Ministry of Digital Development stressed that they do not offer such a service to replace a passport or make its use mandatory.

In March 2021, the Ministry of Finance published a draft presidential decree on the electronic passport of a Russian citizen. It was planned to issue electronic passports from 2023 in Moscow, the Moscow region and Tatarstan. It was reported that the electronic document will be presented in two forms – in the form of a smart card and an application with a QR code.

Work on this project suspended after the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, Forbes wrote in June 2022. The project of issuing digital passports to Russians was frozen “for financial reasons,” one of the sources said, as well as due to a shortage of materials for electronic media – plastic and chips.