Paul Goble
Staunton, Sept. 1 – That the Russian authorities are more concerned about controlling the population than with providing essential services to it is highlighted by the fact across the country and down to the level of small villages, many federal subjects are setting up facial recognition cameras before providing residents with long-promised services like gas for heating.
An investigation by the Horizontal Russia portal found that a minimum of 68 federal subjects, nearly 80 percent of the total, have installed facial recognition cameras to capture criminals and migrants, far more than the number which are providing residents with services like gas (semnasem.org/articles/2025/09/01/v-kazhdoe-selo-ne-gaz-a-kamery-raspoznavaniya-lic-kak-rossiya-stroit-infrastrukturu-kontrolya-opravdyvaya-slezhku-zabotoj-o-bezopasnosti).
Since 2016, regional officials have put in place more than a million such camera systems; and Moscow has now announced that it will install four million more at the cost of 12 billion rubles (120 million US dollars) over the next five years, far more than it appears they are ready to spend on connecting houses to gas and sewage.
Only 14 federal subjects had facial recognition technology in place by 2020; but over the next four years, the portal found, at least 54 more have installed it. The actual number is likely even larger as many subjects did not report whether they have done so or not, Horizontal Russia suggested.
The portal provides a timeline of Moscow decisions about this program, as well as a map showing when the 68 federal subjects for which the situation is known introduced such systems.
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