The Russian Foreign Ministry said that there were no changes in the existing procedure for issuing foreign passports.

Thus, the official representative of the department, Maria Zakharova, reacted to a number of publications that appeared in the media.

“For citizens of the Russian Federation living outside the Russian Federation, foreign passports are issued by diplomatic missions and consular offices of the Russian Federation in foreign countries, and no changes have occurred in this order,” Zakharova said in an official commentary.

According to her, the reports that appeared in the media about the alleged change in this order do not correspond to reality and "are caused by insufficiently careful study of the new administrative regulations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia on the provision of state services for issuing foreign passports on the territory of the Russian Federation, which will enter into force on May 30".

Zakharova clarified that the new administrative regulations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs allow citizens living abroad and temporarily arriving in the territory of the Russian Federation to apply for a replacement passport to the migration department of the territorial bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

“At the same time, if you have a valid foreign passport, you will not need to issue an internal passport in advance.

This measure is designed to ensure the rights of our citizens living outside the Russian Federation, and to enable them to return to their country of permanent residence without delay, ”the Foreign Ministry explained.

Zakharova noted that the Russian Foreign Ministry and Russian consular missions "in the current difficult circumstances are doing everything possible to timely document fellow citizens with foreign passports."

Earlier, a number of media outlets published information about the changes coming into force on May 30, according to which foreign passports will allegedly begin to be issued to citizens of the Russian Federation only on the territory of Russia.

These publications contained an interpretation of the order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which described the administrative regulations of the procedure for obtaining a passport.

Among other things, the document provides a "circle of applicants" for obtaining a document, which refers to citizens in the territory of the Russian Federation and Russians living outside the country.

It says that the service of issuing a passport can be obtained by a citizen "residing outside the territory of the Russian Federation, who applied in the territory of the Russian Federation with an application to issue a passport to the migration department in person or in the form of an electronic document using the Single Portal or through a multifunctional center."

At the same time, from the commentary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it follows that diplomatic institutions of the Russian Federation are engaged in the issuance of passports to citizens living abroad, and the above procedure is necessary only for the convenience of Russians who temporarily arrived in the territory of the Russian Federation from the country of permanent residence.

International passports, certificates of the vaccinated and crypto cabins

Earlier it became known that since April 2021 on the portal "Gosuslugi" it became possible to indicate data on the passport in order to enter this information into the electronic certificate of the vaccinated.

Also on russian.rt.com "To be used for traveling abroad": a certificate of vaccination against COVID-19 can be tied to a passport

As Oleg Kachanov, the deputy head of the Ministry of Tsifra, explained, the rules of international regulation and requirements for vaccination are formed so that Russians can use certificates from the State Service portal to travel abroad.

According to him, the portal launched the automatic generation of vaccination certificates in English.

Kachanov added that the automatic transliteration procedure on the portal has been agreed with the Ministry of Health of Russia and will be carried out in accordance with the translation rules of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia applied when issuing a foreign passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation.

In addition, in the fall of 2020, it became possible in Moscow to issue a passport without the support of a specialized employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs using a crypto-cab.

With its help, you can scan fingerprints and all the necessary documents, as well as take a photo.

Subsequently, the data is sent for consideration to the control system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

At the end of April, the Moscow mayor's office said that more than 1,000 people had used the new method of obtaining a passport. By this time, cryptocabins were installed in 14 urban centers "My Documents".