Goznak produces first ePassport batch

Security printing firm, Goznak, has produced its first batch of Russian electronic passports. The new generation passport booklets are fully ICAO-compliant, the company claims, and the chip is incorporated within a polycarbonate data page. Within a year and a half, Goznak is required to manufacture approximately 500,000 of the new documents.

Goznak’s specimen passports were approved by the Russian government on 18 November last year. The passport incorporates special paper with watermarks, intaglio printing, optically variable inks, security metallized thread and holograms. The blank passport serial number is laser engraved on some pages and laser perforated on the others.

In July last year, Goznak held an open tender for the supply of inlets (inlays with the integrated chip and antenna) needed for the production of the polycarbonate page. The company reports that five companies participated, but only Atlas Science and Technology Center, a federal unitary company, and the French company Axalto were allowed to participate in the third stage of the tender.

The data page will be manufactured Goznak’s Perm Printing Factory, while the passport booklet will be printed and collated at Goznak’s Moscow Printing Factory.