High Tech Passports
MOSCOW (MT)
Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov said Tuesday that Russians will start receiving high-tech foreign travel passports at the end of next year as part of worldwide efforts to prevent terrorism.
The new passports will incorporate a microchip storing biometric information about the holder, such as fingerprints, iris scans and electronic facial signatures, Gazeta reported Gryzlov as saying.
By complicating fraud of the documents the measure will clamp down on freedom of movement of terrorists, the report said.
Russia is moving to introduce the new passports under an action plan to counter terrorism signed last May by the G-8 countries, Gryzlov said. The database will cost between $400 million and $750 million, Gazeta reported.
Some 8 million Russians, or roughly one in 10 adults, who currently possess foreign travel passports will have to exchange them for the new ones, the newspaper said.
**Has anyone else heard of this? The article mentions the G-8 countries, so are we to assume that this will be standard in the US as well?