The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is launched. Russia has not joined it yet, says Novaya Gazeta. The OGP, covering now a number of countries, is aimed to enable civil participation in state governance, to create transparent government, and to overcome corruption.

The Public Opinion Foundation has published results of its survey when Russian citizens evaluated development level of governmental e-services. Compared with last year, there is no obvious progress. Only 11% of Russians use governmental e-services offered, and the number of people knowing anything about them also remained the same, says Cnews.

Sound provision of governmental and municipal e-services is delayed; e-government in Russian regions will work not earlier than in a year. Only the Federal Taxation Service has real successes in the field of e-services, says Business Online.

On Thursday, June 23, 11.00 MSK, the IIFD holds a press conference on Monitoring results for Russian general jurisdiction courts’ official websites, supported by the Regional Press Institute.

At the St.-Petersburg International Economic Forum, a new digital card was presented to Governor Valentina Matvienko. New cards are supposed to enable active participation of St.-Petersburg residents in e-government activities, says Moy Rayon (“My District”) newspaper.

On April 4, Valentina Matvienko, Governor of St.-Petersburg, Igor Schegolev, Minister for Communications, and Alexander Provotorov, President of the “Rostelekom” company, signed agreements on cooperation within e-government formation field, says BaltInfo.Ru.

E-reception desks at government bodies’ official websites are a fine novelty allowing to apply to officials from anywhere. But up to now, application e-forms can become “black holes” where any application could be plainly lost.

The Council for Regional Informatization of the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media discussed possible ways and tools to facilitate interdepartmental e-interaction and provision of governmental e-services, says Cnews.ru.
In theory, after July 1, 2011, officials will be forbidden to require from citizens information available from any government body. But practically, state officials are not ready to this.

The Federal Bailiff Service supports ideas of free software: in 2011, it opens a 130-million-ruble tender for development and maintenance of open software solutions, says Cnews.ru.

Since January 1, 2012, federal executive government bodies should not use paper in its internal document management, according to the Order No. 176-r issued by the Russian Government on February 12, 2011.