MOSCOW. Oct 18 (Interfax) - Moscow's Red Square and adjacent areas will be cordoned off for four hours on Tuesday for an annual exercise of the Federal Protective Service (FSO), an agency guarding top officials and strategic facilities.
Red Square, Vasilyevsky Spusk and Alexander Gardens would be closed to the public from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., the FSO told Interfax.
Entry to the Kremlin for visitors through the Kutafya Tower would be closed from 4 p.m., but visitors to the Armory and Diamond Fund would be able to enter the Kremlin through the Borovitsky Passage as usual.
There would also be traffic restrictions on Borovitskaya Square, Kremlin Embankment, Manezhnaya, Prechistenka and Moskvoretskaya Streets, Greater Stone Bridge and Greater Moskvoretsky Bridge to make room for fire engines and rescue vehicles.
The FSO held such exercises in 2009 and 2010. Police and Emergency Situations Ministry teams took part in them.
As part of the scenario for one of the former exercises, a suspicious car was detected on a street near Red Square. The area around the vehicle was cordoned off, the car was examined by a service dog, and a bomb disposal squad was summoned to the site.