Kremlin plans to install up to 5 million video surveillance cameras in Russia to intensify repressions - ISW

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) report states this.

It is reported that the Russian Ministry of Digital Transformation has initiated the creation of a single platform for storing and processing video footage from all video surveillance systems in the aggressor country. The cost of this platform will be about $134 million.

The Russian media outlet Kommersant wrote that there are about 1.2 million surveillance cameras in Russia, almost half of which are currently available to the Russian government.

The Institute notes that the Russian Ministry of Digital Transformation plans to increase the number of surveillance cameras across the country to five million by 2030 and integrate all of them with face and image recognition software

Russian media also adds that the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations tried to implement a similar initiative in 2020-2022 as part of the Safe City Hardware and Software Complex project aimed at standardizing and installing video surveillance systems with artificial intelligence software in Russian regions, but faced criticism from the leadership. 

• Recently, it was reported that the Russian government is testing an electronic voting system ahead of the 2024 presidential election, likely to facilitate manipulation of the results in favor of Vladimir Putin.