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Metro Authorities to Crack Down on Fare Jumpers

Moscow authorities plan to equip the metro with video cameras in 2014 to compile a database of photos of fare jumpers, the head of the metro said Wednesday.

"They will be entered into our archive. The next time the person enters, before he gets to the turnstile, we'll identify him and show him a photo of his previous fare violation. And then a fine will be issued and we'll sort things out," Ivan Besedin, head of the Moscow metro, said on the metro's official blog.

In 2012, metro authorities detained around 2 million fare jumpers and confiscated around 50,000 fake metro passes.

"We've increased security on all entrances … our security personnel and police are very helpful with this work," Besedin said. "The growing number of paying passengers tells us we are on the right track."

In the spring, authorities also plan to equip the metro with turnstiles with special software that detects fake passes.

There is no official data on how many fake tickets are sold each year. In 2009, police detained a group who in one year sold about 1 million fake metro tickets worth a total of 200 million rubles, Izvestia reported.

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