By 2024, a full-fledged transition to the use of electronic passports should take place in Russia. This was announced at a government meeting on the introduction of an electronic identity card, said Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. As the head of the Cabinet noted, other identification data about a person should be combined in a digital document, in particular, a driver's license and SNILS.

“The goal here is that by 2024, residents of our country can fully use the electronic passport. There is not much time left, now we need to decide on the basic parameters of the e-passport, ”said Medvedev.

As part of the ongoing discussions, two variants of the execution of the main document of a citizen of the Russian Federation are considered: a physical carrier in the form of a plastic card with a chip, as well as a mobile application in a smartphone.

“Of course, no one is talking about immediately, right now replacing paper passports with an unusual document. A regular passport will naturally act. We plan to gradually move to innovation, which I am talking about now, only after the necessary preparations, ”he added.

According to Medvedev, there is every opportunity for a successful transition. Moreover, it allows making the level of development of information technologies.

In turn, Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Akimov showed a sample of an electronic passport to journalists at a briefing after the meeting, and also told about the special application “My Passport”, which will work on all mobile platforms, including the Russian Aurora, and will allow operations.

According to him, the electronic identity of the new generation will be a combination of plastic carrier and mobile application. It will contain data on migration registration, driver's license, SNILS, TIN and other information.

“This is an extremely secure document with a holo-graphic image, with Russian cryptography, with a QR code. The forgery of this document will be incomparably more expensive and security will be much higher than in the field of circulation of paper passports, ”Akimov said.

A pilot project for issuing new identity cards will start in July 2020 in Moscow. Initially, there will be a little over a thousand points of issue, after which their number will increase by about three times. Such a modernization will lead to the fact that the issuance of old-style passports in Russia will be discontinued in 2022.

  • © Maxim Shemetov / Reuters

Meanwhile, the authorities will not force Russians to switch to electronic passports.

“There are many people who are probably not very comfortable living in this electronic world. There are people who are accustomed from birth to control the screen, there are people who are not used to it, ”Akimov explained.

The deputy chairman of the government added that foreign companies would not be involved at any stage of the production of electronic ID cards.

No physical media

According to Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications Andrei Svintsov, the transition to digital documents is necessary to simplify the lives of citizens.

“We can only welcome the efforts of the government in the field of digital development of our country and that part of the economy that directly depends on the authorities - issuing documents, certificates, information, and so on,” Svintsov said.

“We have to move to everything digital. In the future, all paper documents can become a thing of the past, and it will be possible to find the necessary information about a person using biometric data, ”the source added.

In turn, the general director of the Center for Political Information, Aleksey Mukhin, noted that so far no country in the world can do without physical carriers.

“It’s clear that now a lot can be done through the phone and various applications. The idea is that a passport through the website of state services will be downloaded to the phone and you can use your smartphone as an identification document. But the media is still needed, not important, paper, plastic or in the form of a phone. This, of course, is beautiful, but in practice it is quite difficult. Most likely, citizens will still keep their paper passport at home, ”said the ex-president.

Recall that in March 2019, the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation presented a draft law on creating a digital profile of Russians, which will focus on a collection of information about citizens and legal entities in the information systems of government agencies, including the provision of public services. A full launch of this project is expected in the fourth quarter of 2020.