Anonymous complaints may soon become illegal in Russia

It may soon become compulsory to identify yourself when filing a complaint in Russia, reported newspaper Rossiskaya Gazeta on Tuesday, citing Deputy Economic Development Minister Savva Shipov, who spoke of a bill that proposes forbidding anonymous statements.

People who file official complaints in person will now be required to present their passports, while those who file by post to include notarized copies of their papers. Mandatory identification, writes Rossiyskaya Gazeta, is must to help to reduce the number of fruitless inspections that authorities are regularly forced to perform in response to complaints, as the current law does not specify any conditions under which a complaint could be rejected or considered untrustworthy.

Starting in January 2017, legal entities and individual entrepreneurs filing complaints via the Internet will also be required to identify themselves. If authorities are unable to get in touch with a complainant to verify the information, then no inspections will be authorized in light of the complaint.