Kommersant: Russia’s Emergency Ministry requests 15 billion RUB to introduce video surveillance and face recognition in Ukraine-neighbouring regions

Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations is going to request 15 billion rubles (~€260 million) from the state budget to introduce the “Safe City” system in Ukraine-neighbouring regions, Kommersant cites its sources.

The regions in question are Krasnodar, Voronezh and Belgorod, as well as the occupied Crimea. The “Safe City” system includes motion sensors, surveillance cameras, face recognition and ecological monitoring; it is going to be introduced within the next 18 months.

The Emergency Ministry has refused to comment on the matter. However, Kommersant’s source says the introduction of the system is very important against the background of the Ukraine War as there are “far more potential acts of sabotage now.”

The system will help “protect the civilians and the civilian infrastructure” and will improve “the decision making by the authorities,” the source says.

A “yellow level” of terrorist threat was introduced in some Ukraine-neighbouring regions, as well as the occupied Crimean peninsula in April. The governors of Ukraine-neighbouring Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions repeatedly reported Ukrainian shellings in the last weeks. 

Russia’s Emergency Ministry started developing the “Safe City” system in 2014 with the help of Rostec, a state-owned defence conglomerate. The total cost is estimated to be around 150 billion rubles (~€2.6 billion). The system was introduced in Moscow and 12 other regions as of 2020.