Moscow region police have been thrown into confusion when a 45-year-old man, who submitted his passport for replacement, turned out to actually be a woman.
She, or rather he according to the ID, could now face over $2500 in fines for using forged documents.
The bewildering story came about in the course of a usual passport exchange procedure when the police learnt that the passport was a fake. The passport itself had been actually issued to another citizen who had lost it several years before. A further investigation led to the surprising result that the person who had been using the passport all along and wanted to have it replaced is a woman.
As it turns out, the lady in question intends to have a sex change and turned to one of Moscow clinics several years ago. The doctors there advised her first to have her passport data modified before she changed genders.
With the assistance of her friend, the woman got hold of a fake, male passport which she has been using for several years.
The gender stated in the new passport that will be issued to the woman is as of yet unknown.