Russian official proposes fingerprinting entire population of North Caucasus

Give Aleksandr Bastrykin points for ambition: A Russian official has proposed compiling a database containing the fingerprints of the entire population of Russia’s volatile North Caucasus region, RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service reports. Aleksandr Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office, also proposed on March 4 the reregistration of all motor ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

Give Aleksandr Bastrykin points for ambition:

Give Aleksandr Bastrykin points for ambition:

A Russian official has proposed compiling a database containing the fingerprints of the entire population of Russia’s volatile North Caucasus region, RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service reports.

Aleksandr Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office, also proposed on March 4 the reregistration of all motor vehicles in the North Caucasus and issuance of new license plates.

He said such measures would help "stabilize" the situation in the region. 

That’s somewhere around five and a half million people

Human rights activist Lyudmilla Alekseyeva criticized the proposal as "discriminatory," which, it seems to me, is kind of the point. 

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

Tag: Russia

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