Passport Error Grounds Traveler, But Court Delivers a Win

A Russian woman has successfully sued the Ministry of Internal Affairs after a printing error in her new passport wrecked her foreign vacation plans. The Beloyarsky City Court in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug ordered the ministry to pay her over 91,000 rubles, covering her financial losses, moral damages, and legal fees.

The trouble began this year when the woman received her international passport. The flaw, described as a technical error in the machine-readable zone, was only caught during a routine check at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. Officials there deemed the document invalid and confiscated it, preventing her from boarding her flight.

In court, representatives from the Ministry and the local Interior Affairs office denied responsibility. They argued that the data zone is generated automatically and that the traveler had an opportunity to review the passport when she picked it up. The judge, however, ruled that the ministry provided a substandard service that violated the citizen's rights. The court's decision is not yet final.

This case is not an isolated one. Last year, another Russian woman won 137,000 rubles from the ministry after a misspelled patronymic in her passport derailed a holiday in Thailand. These rulings highlight the tangible consequences for travelers when official documents fail to meet basic standards.