Plastic ID cards to replace Russian internal passports - bill
MOSCOW. Jan 29 (Interfax) - The issue of plastic ID cards will start in Russia on January 1, 2015, in replacement of internal passports, says a draft federal law "On the Primary Identity Document of the Citizen of the Russian Federation."
The draft text is available on the Russian Economic Development Ministry's website.
The law authored by the Russian Federation Migration Service will enter into force on January 1, 2015. There will be a ten-year transitional period in which contemporary internal passports will be valid.
"To establish that after this Federal Law enters into force the passport of the Russian citizen, the main identity document of the Russian citizen on the territory of Russia, shall remain valid until its replacement with an electronic card in the period until January 1, 2025," the bill runs.
"The electronic card shall be the identity document of the Russian citizen on the territory of Russia. All citizens of Russia older than 14 and residing on the Russian territory shall be obliged to have the electronic card. The electronic card will have a validity period of ten years," it says.
"The electronic card is a physical storage device carrying personal data of its holder, including biometric personal data in visual and electronic forms that permit identification of the card holder," the bill says.
"The procedure of recognition of the electronic card as the main identity document of the Russian citizen on the territory of Russia in data systems shall be established by the Russian government," it says.
Federal Migration Service Director Konstantin Romodanovsky said in an interview with Interfax in January that an interdepartmental working group had been set up to replace internal passports with plastic ID cards.
