Russians are being invited to have their fingerprints taken voluntarily, following a new decree issued by the Interior Ministry, the state-run Rossiskaya Gazeta newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The procedure is free of charge and the data can be deleted at the individual’s discretion.
Moreover, whereas the procedure was “quite blurry” before, and was only applicable for those who were held by police “for negative reasons,” the new rules make the algorithm that Interior Ministry personnel follow sparkling clear.
The official data base currently holds about 40 million fingerprints.