The Government of the Russian Federation published a resolution βOn Approval of the Rules for Identification of Users of the Internet Information and Telecommunication Network by the Organizer of the Instant Messaging Serviceβ (PDF), which introduces new requirements for the identification of Russian users in instant messengers.
The Decree prescribes, starting from March 1, 2022, to identify subscribers by asking the user for a phone number, verifying this number by sending an SMS or a test call, and sending a request to the telecom operator to check if its database has passport data linked to the phone number specified by the user.
The operator must return information about the presence or absence of the passport data of the specified subscriber, and also store in its database a unique user identifier in the instant messaging service in relation to the name of the messenger. Passport data is not directly disclosed by the operator, the instant messaging service receives only a flag of the presence or absence of passport data.
The subscriber should be considered not identified if there is no passport data in the operator's database, if the subscriber is not found, or if the operator does not return a response within 20 minutes. The organizer of the instant messaging service is obliged to prevent the transmission of electronic messages to users without passing through the identification procedure. To perform verification, the organizer of the instant messaging service must conclude an identification agreement with the telecom operator.
Source: opennet.ru