A Russian State Duma deputy is proposing a measure that calls for mandatory fingerprinting of people with HIV and so-called dangerous contagious diseases and seeks to create a national database to store the information gathered, RT reports.
The Liberal Democratic Party’s Roman Khudyakov, who is spearheading the amendment to a federal bill that would cover both foreigners and Russian citizens if approved, sees the measure as a crime-fighting tool that allows for quick identification. Those who refuse to submit to fingerprinting could pay a stiff fine. Non-Russians face the prospect of being deported and banned from reentering the country for 15 years, RT notes, adding that the government supports a draft of the proposal.
The measure has been criticized by some lawmakers, including a member of Khudyakov’s own party, Sergey Kalashnikov, who says it would violate people’s right to privacy and could prove expensive to implement.
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