Russian Web services for foreigners

Marina Volkova

The Russian Web portal of public services www.gosuslugi.ru is now available for foreigners. They can register in the member area using the series and the number of their migration card. After being registered, non-residents can give in electronic declarations to be allowed part-time residence and a residence permit in Russia.

By now, about 100 thousand people are already registered at the portal. But for their number to grow, large-scale expository work is needed – especially for foreigners who want to live and work in Russia. The main problem is probably that the procedure of registration is difficult even for Russians - in particular, there are two stages of the registration. Says the director of the “Strateg” agency and the author of the weblog of public services www.gov-gov.ru Ekaterina Aksyonova:

"The complicated procedure of registration stops some people – especially those who don’t realize all the profits of using this weblog. But in fact we offer a large scale of services – receiving a foreign passport, the Road Safety Inspectorate’s services and others.

One of the main profits of the portal is the security of information. Hackers are exhaustless in inventing new ways, and for a weblog with many services visited by many foreigners, a reliable defense is needed. Director General of the Russian agency of intelligence technologies “R-Techno” Roman Romachev says: "A portal of public services must be extremely safe. We need a constantly working system of safety."

People’s attitude to this weblog is a wide spectrum of opinions – from praise to sharp criticism. The critics say that it gives little explanation about how to use electronic services. Thus the main task of the project is teaching its clients how to use them. For example, the providers of such commercial Web services like booking air tickets or work with plastic cards have prepared their clients for several years – launching ad companies, explaining the preferences of Internet services and so on. From June 1, the portal has also a Cyrillic domain – госусулуги.рф.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/06/03/9018888.html