No passport needed. Russians will be able to buy energy drinks using biometrics

• These are amendments to the Decree of the Russian Government No. 1067 of June 15, 2022.

If the document is approved, with the help of standard biometrics, residents of Russia will be able to buy not only alcohol, cigarettes and tobacco, hookahs, but also energy drinks. One look at the camera will be enough to make a purchase; It is not necessary to carry a passport, as is clear from the explanatory note to the draft resolution.

“The draft resolution provides the opportunity to citizens who have reached the age of 18 and have entered their personal biometric data in the EBS through the EBS mobile application, to purchase non-alcoholic tonic drinks (including energy drinks) after the identification or authentication through the EBS and Unified Identification Document without a passport or other document that allows determining the age of said buyers,” the explanatory note reads.

According to the document, it will also be possible to access “state services” using simplified biometric data instead of standard ones, which not everyone can obtain.

Simplified biometrics can be recorded by taking a photograph and recording a voice using the State Services Biometrics application. For standard biometrics, you need a new passport. Confirmed biometric data is recorded in banks.

The resolution establishes that standard biometrics will allow you to apply for a pension while living abroad, confirming “being alive.” For now, this can only be achieved by returning to Russia.

The regulation is expected to come into force from 2024.

In Russia there is a unified biometric system (SUB), to which you can voluntarily submit your biometric data. “Government services” use EBS information. Russians were given the right to refuse biometrics by submitting an application to the MFC.