The Ministry of Digital Development proposes to oblige foreigners to submit biometrics to purchase a SIM card – Russia |

25th of April. Interfax-Russia.ru – The Ministry of Digital Development of Russia has sent for consideration to interested departments a bill on introducing the obligation for foreigners to register in the Unified Biometric System to purchase a SIM card from a Russian telecom operator, as well as informing citizens about contracts concluded in their name with mobile operators, the minister said digital development, communications and mass communications of the Russian Federation Maksut Shadayev.

“The main regulations will change in terms of the turnover of SIM cards. Everything that has happened obviously (indicates that the legislation – IF) requires tightening. The Ministry of Digital Development has already submitted a bill to the departments for approval, which obliges foreign citizens to compulsorily enter into contracts with mobile operators before that, register in the Unified Biometric System. This will be mandatory,” Shadayev said at the Telecom of the Future 2024 conference on Thursday.

The minister added that the second measure proposed by the bill developed by the Ministry of Digital Development is to inform users of State Services about all contracts concluded with operators.

“It is very important that we have two measures in the law. Foreign citizens will follow the most stringent option – this is biometrics for obtaining SIM cards. And the second – this is very important from the point of view of “whitewashing”, so that all users of State Services, and we have them Already 120 million people have received information in their personal account about all contracts and numbers that are registered on them.

“Because it seems to us that the main front now is not that SIM cards are issued for non-existent people, because both operators and Roskomnadzor are now involved in checking personal data, but that for living people who do not know about it, SIM cards are simply issued,” he explained.

Earlier, the Vedomosti newspaper reported that foreign citizens, including labor migrants, or stateless persons will be able to purchase SIM cards from Russian telecom operators only if they register on the State Services portal using biometrics and by personally visiting telecom stores. The requirement will not apply to diplomats, representatives of international organizations and refugees.

“These requirements were included in the bill prepared by the Ministry of Digital Development, which Vedomosti reviewed. The document was sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, Roskomnadzor (RKN), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Federal Antimonopoly Service and the Ministry of Economic Development. The departments must agree on it by April 15,” the note said .

Commenting on this initiative, Denis Kuskov, CEO of Telecom Daily, said that the problem of gray SIM cards had been brewing for a long time and it was necessary to tackle it much earlier, and the terrorist attack in Crocus pushed to resolve this issue.