Russian ministry proposes five-million-camera unified surveillance system

Russia’s Digital Development Ministry has proposed the creation of a “platform for processing and storing data from surveillance cameras” in Russian cities. According to Kommersant, the idea was laid out in a presentation by Maksut Shadaev, the head of the ministry.

The ministry expects the platform to have access to regional video surveillance systems, as well as cameras at the entrances of apartment buildings, which will be installed at the expense of funds for capital repairs. “Certain categories of owners”, the ministry specified, will be obliged to install and connect video cameras at their own expense. Shadaev’s presentation says that the data will be analyzed using face and image recognition technology.

There are now 1.2 million video surveillance cameras across Russian cities. Only half of the cameras installed at the expense of the state are currently connected to centralized surveillance systems in the regions, and the authorities do not have access to private cameras.

The ministry expects Russia to have five million surveillance cameras by 2030, and for the entire video stream to be analyzed by artificial intelligence. They believe that this will lead to a 30% increase in crimes being solved.

Additionally, they estimate that the platform’s development will cost 12 billion rubles ($135 million). A Kommersant source at a large IT company said that the real cost of full consolidation will be five or six times higher, as it will be necessary to buy and maintain a large amount of computing power. According to the source, the decentralized organization of intelligent surveillance systems would be less costly.