By Roman Zakaluzny
Post Staff Writer
Critics are charging that a bill signed into law by President Leonid Kuchma on Jan. 4 signals a return to the propyska system used by the Soviet Union, which required residents to register their addresses with the state.
Soviet citizens had their residence addresses written in their internal passports. Once a citizen was registered at an address, changes could be difficult to obtain. That limited mobility, since it was impossible to obtain employment or government services outside the city of registration.
In November 2001, the Constitutional Court found that the propyska system conflicted with Ukraine�s 1996 constitution, which guarantees freedom of movement. However, many government agencies still require the registration stamp in passports for everything from getting a telephone to naming a child.
Artem Panchenko, a researcher with the Yaroslav Mudry Institute of Legal Information in Kyiv, said that the new system differs from the propyska system in one important way: People can change their registered address as often as they wish. However, changes must still be registered with a government �passport desk� located in each neighborhood.
�Unlike the propyska, the new system is for information-gathering purposes only,� Panchenko told the Post on Jan 13.
The law requires citizens, visitors and permanent residents of Ukraine to register within 10 days of arriving at a new place of residence. With passports in hand, applicants must complete an application, pay a fee and show proof that they have terminated their registration at their previous residence.
The law will apply to temporary addresses as well, such as summer dachas. A temporary residence is defined as any place where a person spends less than six months of the year. Registration must take place within seven days of arrival.
The bill becomes effective after it has been published in the official government newspaper, Uryadovy Kurier.
While the registration requirement affects Ukrainians� internal passports, their international travel documents are being updated as well.
The European Union said last month that it planned to enforce a regulation adopted in 2000 that toughened rules related to the production of passports. Effective Jan. 1, 2005, EU-member nations will not accept passports that include photographs that have been glued and laminated. The EU requires that passport photographs be laser-printed and then laminated.
That creates problems for Ukraine, where only the Kyiv passport office is able to produce the new type of passport. The old style is still being distributed elsewhere, though the EU deadline is less than a year away.
The Interior Ministry�s Viktor Davydenko said that more than 43,000 of the laser-printed passports have already been produced. Passport offices in other regions lack the expensive machines necessary to do the laser printing.
�To equip just one oblast capital with the equipment necessary to produce the new passports costs Hr 340,000,� Davydenko told Liga BiznesInform on Dec. 9.
�We just don�t have that kind of money,� he said.
Davydenko added that the ministry has budgeted the funds necessary to supply more of the country with the new machines before the end of 2004.
But Ukraine�s effort to upgrade the technical quality of its passports may face continuing obstacles.
The EU and the United States are leading efforts to make identification more tamper-proof and to incorporate features that would aid law-enforcemnent efforts amid increased concerns over terrorism and organized crime.
Western countries may begin to require visitors to carry passports containing security features such as biometric identification, fingerprints, optical scans and electronic chips.