“Everyone’s a little worried.” The project of an electronic passport for Russians was frozen due to the war

The Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation has frozen for an indefinite period the project for issuing digital passports to Russians, writes Forbes.

It was previously planned that the issuance of plastic cards with a Russian chip and applications with a QR code would begin in pilot mode from the beginning of 2023 in three regions: Moscow, the Moscow Region and Tatarstan.

However, as sources told the publication, after the start of the Russian “special operation” in Ukraine, the project was stopped, despite the fact that technically it is already ready to be launched. According to them, in the government this project is now "not a priority" and in the current conditions "everyone is a little not up to it."

One of the Forbes interlocutors says that they decided to abandon the electronic passport "for financial reasons." The cost of a digital passport would be 1000 rubles, and a regular one - 300 rubles.

“This would cause a great resonance in society: if the residents of Moscow could afford such expenses, then the regions would not pay so much, given that the practical benefits of such a passport are not obvious. After the start of the “special operation”, it became clear that almost no one would pay for this passport because of the crisis,” the source said.

Another reason for the freezing of the digital passport project is the lack of materials for electronic media. There is not enough plastic and chips for the production of plastic cards. “In Russia, there are not enough chips even for issuing bank cards,” Forbes source said.

The concept of an electronic passport in one form or another has been developed in Russia since 2013.