January 21, 2024

Under the All-Seeing Eye


Under the All-Seeing Eye
Watching you... Wikimedia Commons, Hustvedt.

Russia is hardly known for its liberal political activity, but a recent report shed new light on its growing surveillance network.

According to independent news outlet Zapiska, Russia has 18.6 million private- and government-run surveillance cameras. That's a number only exceeded by China and the U.S. The cameras are especially concentrated in Moscow and St. Petersburg, where there are 17 cameras per thousand residents and 13 per thousand residents, respectively. For comparison, there are 225,000 cameras in Moscow; New York police run "only" 15,000.

[Of course all his pales in comparison with the CTV concentration in London. With just under one million silicon eyes on the city, that adds up to one camera for every 10 residents of the British capital.]

While there are technically constitutional laws ensuring the right to privacy of Russian citizens, in practice state actors can deftly sidestep these restrictions in the name of safety. Authorities don't need permission to film in public places, so once citizens leave their homes, their movements are fair game. Computers can then use facial recognition software to track "criminals" through these cameras.

Of course, a sticky situation arises with the amorphous definition of "criminal." In Russia, surveillance has (fairly) effectively prevented mass protests and helped to arrest agitators. However, it's more recently been revealed that men who are trying to avoid being drafted for the war in Ukraine have been tracked down and detained using surveillance cameras.

We're sure glad nothing like this could ever happen in the United States.

You Might Also Like

A Wall of Resistance
  • February 27, 2023

A Wall of Resistance

A Russian shopkeeper's picture went viral after using the walls of his shop to express opposition to the invasion of Ukraine.
Show Me Your Face
  • February 14, 2023

Show Me Your Face

Russia will install face-recognition systems at its borders, violating a law against the forced collection of biometric data.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955