The Interior Ministry proposes to allow the Foreign Ministry and the FSB to seize domestic and foreign passports

The Ministry of Internal Affairs proposed to give the FSB and Foreign Ministry Border Guards the right to seize invalid domestic and foreign passports. The relevant draft law on amendments to the Federal Law “On the Procedure for Leaving the Russian Federation and Entering the Russian Federation”, as well as the Federal Law “On Citizenship of the Russian Federation” was published today on the portal of normative acts. 

Now the Russian embassy or consulate can withdraw a passport outside the Russian Federation. In turn, the Ministry of Internal Affairs proposes to extend the norm to the internal passport, and at the same time to all citizens, excluding clarification of the location of the document owner. If the passport is declared invalid in the territory of the Russian Federation, a temporary identity card will be issued instead. Those who are abroad will be able to return to Russia using it.

As Police Colonel Ekaterina Sizova explained to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, border guards and diplomatic missions will be able to seize internal passports “presented for identification by persons who are not their owners.” This can be revealed, for example, if the photo from the database of the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not match the one presented in the document. It is also proposed to expand the criteria by which the general civil passport of the Russian Federation is recognized as invalid, adding marks and records not provided for by the Russian government to the possible reasons for withdrawal.  

The Interior Ministry, as before, urges Russians to carefully check the information upon receipt of the document. However, now the responsibility will fall not only on the passport holder, but also on the one who issued it. “Officials of migration departments involved in the provision of public services for the registration and issuance of foreign passports, the issuance and replacement of internal passports, are personally responsible for the correctness of the information entered in the passport. Therefore, yes, they will be punished,” Ekaterina Sizova noted. 

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