Russian passports will be harder to forge

By 2004, Russian passports may contain additional identification marks, Russian Minister of the Interior Boris Gryzlov said.

"Today's passports do not allow us to fully identify a person," the minister pointed out. Gryzlov mentioned that he had attended a recent meeting of G8 interior ministers, when it was decided to apply biometric attributes, such as finger-prints, cornea characteristics, person's appearances processed digitally.

"G8 countries believe that it is necessary to settle uniform principles, that is why they determined the time frame /till October 2004/ for the introduction of the innovation to identify a person. "And Russia will by no means stand back," the Russian minister of the interior concluded.