The draft order covers a strip of shoreline running from Rybatskaya Bay to Tonky Cape, according to Agentstvo, which spotted the document. Its boundaries are set out in the text using 13 points with geographic coordinates, running in particular along Rybatskaya, Vzletnaya, Desantnaya and Parusnaya streets.
The area contains the October Revolution children's orthopedic sanatorium, the Vzlet recreation base, the Uletny Bereg beach, the Gelendzhik catacombs and the airport. It also holds a pier for FSB warships and a training center for the security service.
In an explanatory note, the agency cites a presidential instruction dated August 28, No. Prs-1131. Agentstvo said it could not find that document in the public domain.
Among the stated goals, the FSB lists "optimizing the conditions for guarding the state border" and protecting facilities of its border directorate for the Krasnodar region. A border regime allows authorities to control people's entry into an area and their movement within it; in some cases a special pass may be required to visit.
The Moscow Times noted that the proposal to change the regime came amid increasingly frequent drone attacks on Russian and occupied Ukrainian regions. According to the outlet, the Krasnodar region came under a massive drone attack overnight on September 28, with strikes on two oil depots. In mid-September, the Valdai Club conference was moved from Sochi to the Moscow region because of the threat of drone attacks.
Alongside the new zone in Gelendzhik, the FSB proposed abolishing the border zone on the Azov Sea islands belonging to Russia, recognizing the relevant clause of a 2020 order as no longer in force. Novaya Gazeta Europe wrote that this may be connected to the annexation of Ukrainian territories, which has made the sea de facto internal.