MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/. A full-fledged video surveillance system with facial recognition capabilities will be completely installed throughout Moscow’s subway system by September 1, assured Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin.

"Last year, we experimented with the facial recognition system. We apprehended dozens of wanted citizens," Sobyanin said at an extended meeting of the Moscow Department of the Interior Ministry’s panel.

According to the city’s highest official, the system has proven its effectiveness.

"This is why we decided to deploy it citywide starting January 1. We replaced [old] city cameras with HD cameras, introduced artificial intelligence facial recognition systems. On September 1, this system will be fully deployed throughout the Moscow Metro," the mayor said.

This would make it possible to "identify wanted persons in a split second," he emphasized.

"This is a different level of service, there are totally different possibilities. We’ll have to develop video analytical capabilities as well, so that we can identify criminogenic location points, sites where migrants accumulate, drug stashes, and so on," Sobyanin specified.