Russia to step up surveillance of its citizens' trips abroad

Russian authorities will tighten control over the movements of Russians on all types of long-distance transportation within the country and abroad, according to a draft order of the Ministry of Transportation that was noticed by "Verstka."

Since 2024, an order of the Ministry of Transportation has already been in effect in Russia, under which automated centralized databases of personal data about passengers and vehicle crews are maintained in the country. The information is submitted there by carriers and ticket-booking companies.

Even now, they must submit data about ticket purchases, refunds, reissues, the boarding and disembarking of passengers, the departure or cancellation of the departure of a vehicle, as well as about a number of other operations within 15 minutes after these details are registered in their systems, if it concerns a plane or a train, and within 30 minutes in the case of transportation by road, sea, or inland waterway.

But currently this concerns only the scheduled departure of a vehicle or the boarding of a passenger. The new draft order, which "Verstka" found on the portal of regulatory legal acts and which is to replace the current document, separately stipulates that both scheduled and actual information will have to be submitted, for both regular and charter flights.

Also, in the case of air travel, carriers will additionally submit data on transfers and baggage parameters. In addition, every trip on all types of transportation will have its own unique code.

As is the case now, passengers' personal telephone numbers and email addresses, logins and hash values of passwords for passengers' personal accounts, IP addresses and port numbers from which information was submitted when booking a ticket, and details of bank cards and accounts used for the purchase (for example, the last four digits of the card or account) will continue to be submitted to the automated databases.