Russian police force reportedly working to identify suspects by voice, irises, tattoos, gait

Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry (MVD), which serves as the country’s federal police force, is reportedly developing technologies that would enable officers to identify individuals by analyzing their voice, their irises, or their tattoos. Eventually, the technology could extend to analyzing how individuals walk. Danila Nikolayev, the head of the Russian Biometric Society, told the news outlet RBC about the new programs after participating in their development himself. Ministry officials confirmed his assertions.

According to Nikolayev, the new systems are components of the Federal Information System for Biometric Records (FISBU), a program that became public in October 2019. At the time, a leading police researcher named Gennady Puchkov said biometric analyses would eventually “be able to determine the level of emotional and psychological health of the citizens examined.” Nikolayev, the Biometric Society chair, told RBC that local video surveillance systems may also be integrated into the FISBU.

Vladimir Ovchinsky, an advisor to the head of the MVD, told RBC that the new biometric recognition system may be introduced by the end of 2021. He added that a government program called “Safe Cities” is being used as an umbrella for the project in Moscow and that FISBU is being financed through the Russian government budget.

Nikolayev indicated that the new technologies would be used to identify criminal suspects by matching samples collected at crime scenes to a database of citizens’ biometric data. He did not specify how that database would be created.

An anonymous source familiar with police officials’ plans told RBC that the MVD has requested several billion rubles for its work on the project, arguing that much of the cost will go toward transferring intellectual property rights for biometric systems to the Russian government.