Russian security service wants to block public access to real estate ownership data

The Federal Security Service (FSB) has proposed to block public access to information about owners of real estate in Russia. The data would still be freely available to state organs, but all other bodies would need permission from the relevant property owners to access their details.

According to the authors of the new bill, this information can at present be used for criminal purposes, for example blackmail. The FSB also claimed that open access to the data can interfere with ‘certain state defense measures’.

The new law is expected to come into force in March 2016.

At present the data about real estate ownership is available by request to any citizen. It includes a description of the property itself and personal information about the owner. This practice was introduced to improve the transparency of real estate deals.

The information is used by opposition figure Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation in its investigations into corruption among top Russian officials.