MOSCOW.- The anti-terrorist operation regime declared in the Russian capital and the Moscow and Voronezh regions after the rebellion of the mercenaries of the Wagner Group has been lifted, the authorities reported today.
“The head of the Department of the Federal Security Service (FSB) for the city of Moscow and the Moscow region has decided to cancel the legal regime of anti-terrorist operation on the territory of Moscow and the Moscow region from 09.00 (06.00 GMT) on June 26, 2023,” said the institution.
With this decision, all the temporary restrictions on citizen rights and the additional powers of the security forces that this regime implies are lifted.
“Currently, the situation in the Moscow area is stable,” the FSB statement stressed.
However, the mayor of the city, Sergei Sobyanin, has kept this Monday as a non-working day, something that he had decreed last Saturday.
The capital woke up calm and with most of the businesses open, although there is less influx in the subway in the early hours of the day.
The anti-terrorist measures allow the security forces to restrict the freedom of movement of citizens, the intervention without a judicial order of their communications, both by telephone and by Internet, and even use their means of transport.
The extraordinary measure was also lifted in the Voronezh region, some 400 kilometers south of Moscow and where the column of mercenaries had to go north to reach the capital, the governor of that federated entity reported on his Telegram channel, Alexander Gusev.
The rebellion led by the Wagner chief, Yevgueni Prigozhin, was dismantled this Saturday, less than 24 hours after it began, thanks to mediation by the President of Belarus, Alexandr Lukashenko.
The agreement, reached when the Wagners had taken the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and their columns were 200 kilometers from Moscow, exempts Prigozhin and his mercenaries from criminal prosecution.
The Wagner chief will go into exile in Belarus, while fighters who did not directly participate in the uprising will be able to sign contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry.
