- Category
- War in Ukraine
Russia Builds System to Track Citizens’ Travel Inside and Outside the Country
Prefer U24 Media on Google
- Authors
![Photo of Ivan Khomenko]( "Photo of Ivan Khomenko")
Russian authorities are preparing to expand a nationwide passenger-data system that could allow law enforcement agencies to track citizens’ long-distance travel inside Russia and across its borders.
We bring you stories from the ground. Your support keeps our team in the field.
According to Russian outlet Verstka on August 15, the changes are contained in a draft order from Russia’s Ministry of Transport that would broaden the information collected in centralized databases covering passengers and transport crews. The proposal was published for public consultation on August 11.
Under existing rules introduced in 2024, transport operators and ticket-booking companies are already required to transmit information on ticket purchases, refunds, passenger boarding and disembarkation, as well as departures and cancellations.
The proposed system would expand those requirements by distinguishing between scheduled information and what actually occurred during a journey, Verstka reported.
-18c8b7fe1b5fa5887e16c3a8eb915cba.jpg)
For air travel, the rules would cover both scheduled and charter flights and require airlines to provide additional information about connections and baggage. Each journey across covered forms of transport would also receive a unique identifier.
Yevgeny Smirnov, a lawyer with the Russian human rights project First Department, said the existing system is already “quite effective,” but that the proposed changes are intended to make it more precise and allow authorities to track travel information “literally online and with minimal delays.”
The databases form part of Russia’s Unified State Information System for Transport Security, known by its Russian abbreviation EGIS OTB. The system was launched in 2014 and has subsequently been expanded to collect a growing range of passenger information.
Passenger travel histories are stored for seven years and can be provided to Russian security and law enforcement agencies upon request. The information includes passengers’ names, dates of birth, sex, citizenship, passport details, routes and travel dates.
The proposed rules would further expand the information collected when tickets are purchased. Databases would receive digital identifiers including the IP address and port number used during a booking, as well as the final four digits of the bank account or payment card used for the transaction.
Russian State Duma Transport Committee deputy chairman Rafael Mardanshin said the additional tracking was necessary to protect passengers, transport workers, and infrastructure from terrorism and fraud.
“The transport complex is one of the targets for terrorist attacks, so traceability is especially important here,” Mardanshin said.
If adopted, the new rules would give Russian authorities a more detailed centralized record of when and how people travel by long-distance transport, including movements outside the country, while linking individual journeys with booking and payment data.
Russia has also expanded the use of state databases to track citizens’ actual places of residence. In June, Russian enlistment offices began accessing residential addresses that individuals had not directly provided to military authorities, according to the rights group School of Conscripts.
Discuss this article:
-9a7b3a98ed5c506e0b77a6663f5727c5.png)
