Russia Suspends Issuance Of Biometric Passports For 'Technical' Reasons

The Russian Foreign Ministry has suspended the issuance of biometric foreign passports for “technical reasons,” the ministry said in an August 26 statement.

The ministry did not give a reason for the decision, but earlier Russia stopped issuing biometric internal documents because of a deficit of the required chips due to sanctions imposed against the country following its unprovoked invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February.

In June, the state-controlled Sberbank savings bank announced it was “recoding” old chips in order to use them for newly issued bank cards.