I got an email from the Russian Federal Taxation Service saying I have a new notification. I’ve opened the URL and logged in using my email and password. There were taxes to pay. I clicked the notification and got presented with a full receipt, which had a QR code. I scanned the QR code with the banking app’s camera and tapped ‘Pay’.

The whole process took two minutes.

The IT services of Russia are incredible, and it’s a shame how far Germany is from it.