Economic Development Minister: Electronic Passports to Be Issued in Russia from 2006

MOSCOW, July 15. Electronic passports will be issued to Russians from 2006. As a Rosbalt correspondent reports, this was announced yesterday by Russian Minister for Economic Development German Gref, while speaking at a meeting of the joint committee on communication technology. Mr Gref said that the Ministry for Economic Development and the Interior Ministry had appealed to President Vladimir Putin to approve the programme for the new passports. 'If the president agrees, then work will begin in 2004 to design the passports and the first electronic passports may be issued by 2006-2007,' said Mr Gref. All expenses for this project will be included in the Electronic Russia programme in 2004, the minister stressed.

The electronic passport will basically be a plastic card containing comprehensive data about the cardholder including medical information, social insurance etc.