Published on: 2026-08-19
Source: Moscow Government – Правительства Москвы –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
Muscovite card — one of the capital’s most important social projects. Residents have been using its capabilities for 25 years. Over these years, the card has become a reliable assistant for millions of people entitled to benefits. It allows solving dozens of everyday tasks. For example, receiving socially significant services, discounts on goods and services from loyalty program partners, making doctor appointments, taking trips at a reduced price or for free on city transport, and much more. Since 2001, more than 32 million cards have been issued. Today, about five million people hold them. Approximately 85 million transactions are made monthly with the Moscow resident card when using city services.
“The Muscovite Card is a digital solution supported by a complex infrastructure. About 30 state information systems are involved in verifying benefits through the card. It is important to us that the card works equally reliably both for a schoolchild who uses it to get to school and for a pensioner who uses it every day on city transport. Production and quality control of the cards play a significant role in this,” said Olesya Kuzmina, project manager of the ‘Muscovite Card’ in the capital.
How the Muscovite card is created
The Muscovite card is being created in Zelenograd. Russian materials and technologies are used for its production. Thanks to this, it was possible to speed up the manufacture of the products and mitigate the impact of sanctions pressure.
Card production — This is a complex technological process involving dozens of operations and multi-level quality control. It begins with the preparation of the base, which is a white plastic sheet 0.2 millimeters thick, 48 centimeters long and 32.5 centimeters wide. Guide holes are punched in it, which ensure accuracy in all manufacturing operations.
A separate stage is the creation of the card’s filling. Its main elements are the microcontroller (chip), which stores data, and the antenna, which transmits it contactlessly and without a built-in power source. Today, Moscow Metro cards use entirely domestic chips. In terms of their characteristics, they fully comply with the card acceptance infrastructure of Moscow and the Moscow region. The chips are produced by the “Micron” factory, a resident of the special economic zone “Technopolis Moscow”.
This process takes up to three months. The silicon chip crystal is formed in clean manufacturing rooms on silicon wafers with a diameter of 200 millimeters. Several thousand crystals are placed on one such blank, which are then sealed in chip modules.
After this, the chip is mounted onto the card and the antenna is created. A robotic manipulator places the microcontrollers on a plastic sheet according to the specified program and secures them with special glue. Then, a copper wire with a diameter of 0.1 millimeters is wound onto the surface of the previously prepared plastic sheet. A special machine is used for this operation. After winding, the antenna is soldered to the chip so that it can transmit data. This device is already capable of contactless interaction with readers, such as metro turnstiles or ground transport validators. But many more operations need to be performed to obtain a finished personal card with the blank.
To protect fragile components, the sheet is laminated. The blank with chips and antennas is covered with a plastic layer and placed into a production press laminator. In it, under pressure and high temperature, two sheets are fused together. As a result, the internal layer of the card, called the inlay, is created.
Then comes the stage of electronic personalization of the inlay (inner layer). A special device — a personalizer — simultaneously processes all the chips on the sheet. It reads the unique numbers of each microcontroller, records information about benefits, mandatory medical insurance policy, SNILS in its memory, and generates a file for printing covers. Such information State Unitary Enterprise “Moscow Social Register” transmits to the plant only through secure communication channels.
The next operation is printing the card reverses. This is done on a large printing press. Sheets of plastic 0.15 millimeters thick are loaded into it. The machine reads information from the file generated during the electronic personalization stage. Then it applies to the sheets for the front side of the card its number, the holder’s first and last name, and the expiration date. On the sheets for the back side, it prints the photograph, the card number, and the OMS policy number.
At the final stage, all layers of the card are connected. The inner layer is placed between the covers and covered with a lamination layer on both sides. This blank is sent to a press for an hour. After fusing, the cards are punched out of the sheet using a stamp. The finished products are inspected by the quality control service. Then the items are packed into boxes, labeled, sealed, and sent to the State Unitary Enterprise «Moscow Social Register». There, employees verify the data printed on the card against the information in the system. After this, the items are distributed into personalized envelopes and sent to educational institutions and state service centers «My Documents». From there, they are picked up by the owners.
How the Muscovite card is created can also be seen at in the video material.
Advantages of the Moscow Resident Card
Moscow card holders have access to a free or discounted passage in surface urban transport, the metro, on the Moscow Central Circle, and the Moscow Central Diameters. In addition, it can be used to get discounts at more than nine thousand partner retail outlets loyalty programs.
The card also grants the right to use libraries and borrow books if linked to the reader’s profile at any metropolitan reading room. Additionally, holders can make appointments with doctors via clinic infomats, and elderly citizens can present the card to mark their attendance at project classes. “Moscow Longevity”. Schoolchildren and college students have the opportunity to visit more than 120 museum venues and exhibition halls for free with a card under the program “Museums for Children”. In addition, they can use it to enter the educational institution and pay for meals in the cafeteria.
How to get a Muscovite card
The Muscovite card can be issued to school and college students, university students, pensioners, people with disabilities, children and parents from large families, honorary donors, and other privileged categories of city residents.
Submit statement to obtain the card simply on the mos.ru portal. For this, a standard or full account will be required. You can find out how to register on mos.ru and upgrade your account status in instructions.
Children over 14 years old submit the application themselves, while for those who have not yet reached this age, the card is issued by parents or legal representatives. The status of the application and the card, as well as viewing personal benefits associated with it, can be tracked by Muscovites in the personal account on the mos.ru portal in the “Documents and Data” section.
The Muscovite card will be ready within 30 days from the date of application. A notification about the possibility of receiving it will be sent to the personal account on the mos.ru portal and to the email. Preschoolers over seven years old, students of schools and colleges in the capital can collect the ready card at their educational institution. Those studying in private schools or outside Moscow, as well as other privileged categories of citizens, need to contact the selected public services center “My Documents.” Students must confirm the receipt of the Muscovite card in their personal account on mos.ru within 90 days. In other cases, confirmation is not required.
You can learn more about the Muscovite card on the project’s channel at in the “Max” messenger, as well as from the mini-series “Moscow in Digital”.
The creation, development, and operation of electronic government infrastructure, including the provision of mass socially significant services, as well as other services and electronic forms, align with the objectives of the national project “Data Economy and Digital Transformation of the State” and the regional project of the city of Moscow “Digital Public Administration.” More information about Russia’s national projects and the capital’s contribution can be found at special page.
Quickly get the main news on the official channels of the city of Moscow in messengers “Max” and “Telegram”.
Please note; This information is raw content obtained directly from the information source. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.