Sergei Bakeshin has provided his comments on the creation of a unified population register for Fontanka

The State Duma has passed a law that creates an information system to be operated by the Federal Tax Service which from 1 January 2022 will have the right to collect, record and use data from Russians, including their names, dates and place of birth, gender, details of the registration of a civil status certificate of birth and death, tax numbers, family position, family and other ties. It is assumed that people will be able to check what data the state has about them, and that there will be no personally identifiable information, biometrics, medical information, taxes, fines and property.

As Senior Associate, Sergei Bakeshin, told the Fontanka.ru newspaper, the initiative raises many questions. “It is not very clear which problems the state is solving. Why, for example, is information on education and military registration entered in the register, but other information, such as regarding driving licences will not be entered? The register will contain information about parents and children, but with which of the parents the child lives, whether the parents live together, have a joint household, or form one family, the registry is unlikely to be able to answer these questions. Even stranger are the references to the fact that the register will help calculate the income level of families, despite the fact that income information will not be included in it”, Sergei explained.

Sergei also underlined the fact that “tax authorities can now request information from the same registry offices, but if the tax authorities will be holders of this information, it will become easier for them. Moreover, it is assumed that in the future, the register will become the only source of information. If the tax inspector records that you are a camel, you will have to prove the opposite”

For the full article (in Russian), please see the Fontanka.ru website >>>