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Crimea and Sevastopol

Crimea to use electronic queuing system for Russian passport applicants

The minister of information of the republic is sure that it will allow "to remove all conversations connected with abuses of employees of passport service"

SIMFEROPOL, April 05, /ITAR-TASS/. An electronic queuing system will be used in Crimea to regulate the flow of applicants for Russian passports.

Crimean Minister of Information and Mass Communications Dmitry Polonsky said on Saturday, April 5, that “we have prepared proposals on an electronic queue management system” and apologised to people for the inconveniences and a long waiting time for Russian passports, the CrimeaInform news agency reported.

Polonsky told the ATR Crimean-Tatar television channel that the new system would “solve all problems”.

The minister also said that different television channels, including Ukraine ones, could broadcast in Crimea.

“I think the more television channels and mass media in general in our republic, the better because they will draw an objective picture and people will have access to a broad range of information,” he said.

“Let people watch Russian, Ukrainian, Crimean-Tatar and Turkish channels and make their choice,” Polonsky added.

At the same time, he stressed that mass media in Crimea should comply with Russian laws and may not promote violence.

When asked why some of the Ukrainian television channels had been turned off in Crimea in March, Polonsky said this had been done because of their debts to the local radio frequency centre. But this measure affected only analogue channels. “Ukrainian channels are freely available on cable networks and one can watch them. Satellite television is also working. We are not going to ban anything,” he said.

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Crimea and Sevastopol

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