Russia fights for freedom in Ukraine while Russian freedoms are thrown away back in Moscow to bankers

 Mon 9:28 pm +00:00, 10 Jun 2024  1

posted by Tapestry

A masterful slow-boil

To fully appreciate how Russians are being slowly boiled alive in a giant cauldron of “safety and convenience,” all you have to do is go back to 2018 when UBS was first introduced as a safe and convenient and World Bank-endorsed way to apply for a loan.

Announcing the creation of UBS in June 2018, Vedomosti wrote:

The state seems to have figured out how to provide services without requiring a citizen to present an original passport to verify identity. From July 1, the Unified Biometric System will be launched in Russia, where Russians will be able to submit images of faces and casts of voices if they wish. […]

There will be no wild demand for registration in the Unified Biometric System for the sake of obtaining banking services, the bankers themselves admit. But, most likely, after testing the system in the overregulated banking sector, it will be used to provide other services, such as government and medical. And here, for many, a dilemma may arise: what is more important—comfort and convenience or privacy and safety of their personal data? […]

Biometrics gives the state a huge opportunity to control society, since biometric data is inseparable from a person. Now in public places (for example, in transport), face recognition systems are being introduced to search for those who are wanted. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB will have access to the Unified Biometric System…

Again, this was almost five years ago, when UBS was advertised as a fast and convenient way to open a bank account.

Thanks to a newly created regulatory framework (endorsed by the World Bank), UBS is now so much more.

In a January 11, 2023 article, RIA Novosti praised the safety and convenience of UBS, which apparently will now be used for all kinds of things—and not just for opening a bank account:

With the help of new technologies and the development of research in this area, we can expect improvements in the accuracy and speed of facial identification, as well as new applications of biometrics in various fields.

For example, biometrics can be used in the medical field for diagnosing and monitoring health, as well as in the transportation industry for driving cars and other vehicles. In the future, biometrics is likely to become an even more widespread and important part of our lives.

“The development of computer technology allows the use of biometrics in many areas of activity: access control to premises and devices, confirmation of financial transactions, security at airports, identification at schools and hospitals, assistance to law enforcement agencies. The system contributes to the rapid search for criminals and the prompt disclosure of crimes,” Ernest Raevsky, a representative from the company GetTransfer, says.

The expert notes that now biometric data is used in social facilities, in educational institutions. “At the end of November 2022, President Vladimir Putin announced that it is necessary to implement artificial intelligence into all spheres of life and this is a priority for the coming years […],” concluded Raevsky.

There’s not much else to add, except to point out—again—that this “new” biometrics law is universally hated and despised in Russia.

To quote Tsargrad:

There is only one question: why is this bill needed? We are fighting for gaining our sovereignty on the battlefield in Ukraine, while in the rear we are acting according to World Bank manuals?

We hope legislators will show common sense, figure out in whose interests this law was developed, and send it to where it belongs—the trash can.

Instead of being tossed into the trash, the bill was sent to Putin’s desk, where it was promptly signed into law.

A truly epic, slow-boil scam.

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