MOSCOW, July 22 (RIA Novosti) - A new biometric foreign passport will be developed in Russia by January 1, 2006, Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said Friday.
"Russia could develop new foreign passports by January 1, 2006," Nurgaliyev said. "The passports will include the owners' biometric data."
He said that in light of the recent terrorism threat, migration processes must be put under stricter control.
"Particularly, a new system accumulating data on foreign citizens' arrivals and departures must be created by 2006 as well," Nurgaliyev said.
The minister criticized the pace of the project's implementation and the current situation with the registration of foreign citizens in Russia.
"The current situation results in long lines, the need to fill out an enormous volume of documents and it humiliates human dignity," Nurgaliyev said.
The minister said the Russian President demanded that the ministry "minimize the consequences of the democratic decline in Russia by simplifying the entrance procedures for direct decedents of former Russian citizens."
Nurgaliyev said another important task is to impose stricter control over the Federal Migration Service bodies to fight existing corruption.
