Today the State Duma will consider on the second reading the draft law "On organization of public and municipal services." The new version of the document has a number of sections, specifying state, municipal and other services to the Russians with a universal electronic card.

In 2012-1013 these cards will be issued to citizens upon the application, and in 2014 without it. Finally, only those who write an application renouncing to have the card, will not have one.

Judging by description, the universal electronic card (UEC) will look like a bank plastic card. It is proposed, that the card should have a full name and a photograph of a cardholder; number and expiry date; the number of a pension certificate.

But the main thing in this card is stored within an electronic medium. In addition to general information about a cardholder, UEC will store so-called "electronic applications". These are special codes of an authorized access to particular services.

Almost the entire set of applications is tightly controlled by the state (in particular, mandatory health and pension insurance services). Banking services are of exception: the cardholder will be offered a choice from the list of banks that have signed the contract. However, the state reserves the right to choose a bank when a citizen does not show civic consciousness and initiative; for instance, has not filed an application for a card or a rejection of it in due time.

The bill states that the issuance of cards (except duplicates) will be done free of charge. However, this does not mean that citizens do not have to bear any costs.

Unfortunately, the bill is not very clear whether the UEC somehow will be used to authenticate people on a united portal of state services, but it is quite possible, that the UEC is the electronic key to the state services, the Russian Prime told about in February. Considering the fact, that the UEC will combine pension and health care cards, there is hope that it will reduce the number of numerous documents, without which a Russian can not be considered a full-fledged citizen.

Гиперссылки разрушают мозг и опустошают память. Приличные люди прекращают ставить гиперссылки. А может, нужна просто другая ссылочная архитектура?

Russian Ministry of Education and Science ordered schools and other secondary education institutions to move from handwritten to machine filled certificates. By the end of the academic year school authorities found out that they needed to buy the special software from the only recommended supplier, and that they would have to several times overpay for urgency.

Last year, Ministry of Education and Science published a draft order on the transition to machine filled certificates, with possible "use of the software module” (the ministry did not mention a specific producer or program). The order has not been approved yet, but the inferior authorities begun sending a notice, saying that “ARM-register” company has already developed and sells special software, and schools should buy it from the “ARM-register” online store. The officials did not bother themselves to inform of the free alternatives of “ARM-register” products.

The cheapest version of the program in “ARM-register” online store now costs 1,000 rubles (at that price you can get distribution by e-mail, but not all schools have the Internet access). Delivery via post will cost 2,400 rubles (and 20 days standby). The most recent proposal of the supplier was a "rush order" of the program for Moscow and Moscow region educational institutions, with self-export from the warehouse, "not to wait for delivery”, at the price of 4,800 rubles.

In brief, 2008-2009 scandals, involving modernization of education ("School Web", "School Linux", "School Portal"), could be taken for beginner mistakes. By 2010, the modernization of all Russian bureaucracy branches has reached such a scale, that it can simply ruin a skeleton of the Russian state.