Personal matter

The new register of the Ministry of Justice is contrary to the law and is the fruit of the zeal of its leadership

The Ministry of Justice published in test mode a template for a register of persons located outside the Russian Federation and evading the execution of criminal or administrative (under certain articles of the Administrative Code) punishment. The maintenance of such a register is within the competence of the Ministry of Justice by Law No. 284-FZ, which was adopted by the Duma in the second and third readings on July 22 and signed by the President on August 4.

The test template features “Petrov Petrovich” - a fictional character. The attention of human rights activists and the media was attracted by the presence in the future list of information about personal data: such as full name, date and place of birth, SNILS, Taxpayer Identification Number, special account number in rubles, to which any income of the “evader” in Russia will be credited. This is contrary to the Law “On Personal Data” No. 152-FZ of July 27, 2006, according to which such data can be placed in the public domain only with the consent of the person who can be identified with their help.

The Ministry of Justice explains its initiative by the fact that government bodies and private organizations (for example, notaries) will have to comply with the restrictions established by Law No. 284-FZ, namely: not to register transactions in the Russian Federation with the participation of “evaders”, consulates abroad to refuse to replace their passports and issue powers of attorney, etc. - we wrote about this in detail on the website on July 22 and 27.

Meanwhile, the Personal Data Act 2006 is based on the premise that such data should not easily fall into the hands of fraudsters and ill-wishers. For certain categories of citizens, primarily security officials, the law establishes a procedure for depersonalizing personal data. A memorable story is when the sons of Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, after a journalistic investigation into them, ended up in real estate registers under the pseudonyms LSDU3 and YFYAU9.

We do not know in detail what our colleague Oleg Roldugin, who is now under house arrest, is accused of, but Article 272.1 of the Criminal Code is also related to the search for personal data. This means that for some, such journalistic work turns out to be a crime, while for others, personal data is not protected at all.

Each of us from time to time gives consent to the processing of our personal data in writing, for example, when making an appointment at a clinic or checking into a hotel - this looks like an empty formality and a translation of paper. To publish the data of “those evading punishment,” the Ministry of Justice will do without formalities.

In fact, the template proposed by the Ministry of Justice is not unprecedented: a similar module for the list of “foreign agents” (and it will largely coincide with the discussed list of “evaders”) includes not only INN and SNILS, but also the address of registration or actual location.

At the same time, at the end of July, the Ministry of Justice posted on its website a complete “gallery of foreign agents” (currently 1246 positions) not only with personal data, but also with photographs . Such creative initiative is not provided for by any laws at all and is probably the result of the personal zeal of Minister Konstantin Chuychenko.