Հայ
Рус- 20 February, 2024
- Foreign Policy
According to the information provided by the National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia, servicemen of the Border Guard Service of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) stationed in Armenia carry out border control at the “Meghri” and “Zvartnots” crossing points of the state border of Armenia (including through access to the Border Management Information System of Armenia) according to the provisions of the Treaty between the Republic of Armenia and the Russian Federation on the Status and Operating Conditions of the Border Troops of the Russian Federation on the Territory of the Republic of Armenia of September 30, 1992.
The BMIS system contains personal data of citizens of the Republic of Armenia and other persons crossing the RA state border, which is also evident from the regulations of the RA Government Decision No. 884-N of June 22, 2006 on Creation of the Border Management Information System of the Republic of Armenia, Approval of Rules and Regulations for its Operation and Establishment of the Users List.
According to Article 8 of the Law of the Republic of Armenia on Protection of Personal Data (hereinafter referred to as the Law):
The processing of personal data shall be lawful, where:
1) the data have been processed in observance of the requirements of the law and the data subject has given his or her consent, except for cases directly provided for by this Law or other laws; or
2) the data being processed have been obtained from publicly available sources of personal data.
According to Article 26(2), Clause 1 of the Law:
The processor may transfer special category personal data to third parties or grant access to data without the personal data subject’s consent, where the data processor is considered as a processor of special category personal data prescribed by law or a ratified international agreement, the transfer of such information is directly provided for by law and has an adequate level of protection.
According to Article 27(6) of the Law:
Personal data under the disposition of state bodies may be transferred to foreign state bodies only within the scope of ratified international agreements, whereas to non-state bodies in accordance with the norms of this Article.
However, the Treaty between the Republic of Armenia and the Russian Federation on the Status and Operating Conditions of the Border Troops of the Russian Federation on the Territory of the Republic of Armenia of September 30, 1992 is not a ratified international agreement (despite the fact that it was subject to ratification both under legal regulations of 1992 and under the current ones). Accordingly, the Russian border troops should not have access to the BMIS system.
Taking advantage of their access to the BMIS, Russian FSB units recently abducted a person on the territory of Armenia, which also means that anyone in the territory of Armenia is vulnerable to the illegal actions of Russian law enforcement agencies, as long as they have access to the BMIS system, which, as argued above, is unlawful.
And in 2016, pro-Russian groups published data on citizens and vehicles that had crossed border checkpoints of the Republic of Armenia. According to the investigations published in the media, there is reasonable suspicion that the leak was organized by the border guards of the FSB of the Russian Federation.
Based on the aforementioned considerations, as well as the fact that a foreign state has unlawful access to the personal data of hundreds of thousands of Armenians (and not only), the Union of Informed Citizens turned to the Personal Data Protection Agency of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, demanding to block the access of border troops of the FSB of the Russian Federation to the BMIS system of the Republic of Armenia.
You can find more details about violations of Armenian-Russian agreements and domestic legislation of the Republic of Armenia by Russian border guards stationed in Armenia here.
Ruzanna Avagimyan
Union of Informed Citizens
