Originally Posted by
warheel
I was at passport control in Russia and could see the computer screen of the officer helping the person at the other side of the kiosk. When she scanned his passport, a photo came up of the person she was helping. I don't know if he was a Russian national and it was his passport photo or if it was a scan of the photo submitted with his visa, but it was odd.
In Russia the picture always comes up, let it be a chip enabled passport, or a simple machine readable. Its also true for visas. For new electronic (chip enabled) Russian passports the picture in the actual passport is black and white embedded onto the last page as a hologram, yet on the officer's screen it comes up in color. Every time one enters or exits Russia, the name and the passport number are automatically matched against several lists, including "persons not allowed to enter on the ground of security or health risk", against any debtors (i.e. cases like non-payment of taxes or alimony), as well as criminal cases. Despite popular belief, they do not check against military conscription fulfillment.
The list that shows up on the screen also includes all previous entries and exits into Russia along with any comments that may exist. I don't know what else can they gather by going deeper into the system, but thats just the first page that comes up when they swipe your passport and/or visa in Russia.