No In-Person Visits: Debtors and Bailiffs to Communicate Online
The new digital service on Gosuslugi (Public Services) lets users submit electronic documents and check the progress of enforcement proceedings. Its functionality is expected to expand further.
Debtors and claimants can now avoid in-person visits to a Federal Bailiff Service office. Russia has launched Tsifrovoe ispolnitelnoe proizvodstvo (Digital Enforcement Proceedings), an online service that lets users check debts and the progress of enforcement proceedings, as well as submit electronic applications, motions and appeals. The service also provides information on measures taken by bailiffs, including restrictions imposed on debtors, such as travel bans or restrictions on certain actions involving property. All these features are available through the Lichnyy kabinet storony ispolnitelnogo proizvodstva (Personal Account for Enforcement Proceedings) on the Gosuslugi portal.
Experience with similar mechanisms in other areas shows that online services can save time for both users and government employees, allowing them to spend less time on paperwork and focus directly on their work. Because electronic communication between government agencies is much faster, each procedure can also take considerably less time. This is the goal of the digitalization of government services, which includes developing interagency information systems and electronic document management.
Unified Register of Enforcement Documents
Over time, more operations are expected to be completed without FSSP staff involvement. Eventually, individual services are expected to become a unified digital infrastructure for enforcement proceedings. The Russian Ministry of Justice is working to create the Edinyy elektronnyy reestr ispolnitelnykh dokumentov (Unified Electronic Register of Enforcement Documents). The registry is intended to enable automated data exchange among courts, the Federal Bailiff Service, employers and banks.
Another area for future development is the use of automation and AI to process documents, submit appeals and make routine decisions.
A Digital Route for Every User
Government service automation has been one of the most prominent trends in recent years. In 2021, a substantial share of government services had already moved online. The Gosuslugi portal also introduced features that automatically populated some information when users applied for services, pulling the data from state information systems. This was one of the first steps toward a model in which government systems exchange data on their own. That same year, Mintsifry (Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media) proposed an experiment that would allow citizens to receive certain services through banks' information systems, bypassing repeated identification through the Gosuslugi portal.
In 2023–2024, Russia began actively developing services that group several government services around a single life situation under corresponding sections on Gosuslugi. Instead of searching for different services on their own, users began receiving a single digital route that brings together multiple agencies and procedures. These included life situations for supporting large families, moving to another region, and restoring or replacing documents. In effect, the Federal Bailiff Service's digital interaction is moving in the same direction – more processes are handled automatically, while the need for in-person visits and separate requests to different agencies continues to decline.
Tsifrovoe ispolnitelnoe proizvodstvo is part of Russia's long-term drive to digitalize government administration. In the future, users are expected to see full automation of these processes, covering electronic documents, interagency data exchange and automated decisions for routine operations. The IT sector is also expected to receive a new boost, as demand for domestic solutions for government service digitalization is certain to grow.
