Facial recognition has been built into Moscow's CCTV network, including metro station cameras via systems reported under names including "Sfera" and "Face Control", since at least 2017, growing to a network reported at more than 178,000 cameras. Unlike most entries on the tracker, where the central dispute is accuracy or proportionality, the documented pattern here is more direct: independent monitor OVD-Info has recorded hundreds of specific cases where the technology was used to identify and detain protesters and dissidents, including waves of arrests following 2021 protests, preventive detentions after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and identification of people attending opposition figure Alexei Navalny's 2024 funeral.

As with the Chinese entries on this tracker, independent verification here relies on human rights monitors and investigative journalism working without the access an official regulator would have, not on state disclosure, and that limitation is real rather than a technicality.