The leaders of Russia and Kazakhstan have agreed on further joint mutually beneficial use of the Baikonur cosmodrome - such a statement was made following the visit of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev to Moscow. The parameters of the agreements reached have not been made public. But the conflicts and disagreements around the cosmodrome preceding these agreements "leaked" to the press very actively.
We can say that the disagreements between Moscow and Astana have acquired a "cosmic" scale. On the eve of Nazarbayev's visit to Moscow, Kazakhstan announced its intention to revise the current agreement, reduce the number of Proton rocket launches and raised the issue of a phased transfer of Baikonur to Astana. In response, Russia threatened to end cooperation on all joint space projects. The foreign affairs agencies of the two countries exchanged notes. The future of the cosmodrome was discussed by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Kazakhstan Sergey Lavrov and Yerlan Idrisov and the interstate commission at the level of the vice-prime ministers of the two countries Igor Shuvalov and Kairat Kelimbetov.
It is not the first time that Kazakhstan and Russia have sorted out relations on the use of the Baikonur cosmodrome. The peculiarity of the current situation is that the dirty linen was taken out of the hut. A note from the Russian Foreign Ministry became public, in which Smolenskaya Square demanded clarification about the statements of the head of Kazkosmos Talgat Musabayev that Kazakhstan imposes restrictions on the launches of Proton-M launch vehicles: there should now be not 14, but 12 of them a year … The reason is allegedly environmental pollution. In this regard, Kazakhstan decided to unilaterally revise the agreement on Russia's lease of the Baikonur cosmodrome.
Litter from the hut
“The agreement on the lease of Baikonur was adopted in 1994 and worked out. President Nursultan Nazarbayev set the task to develop a new comprehensive agreement on the Baikonur complex,”Talgat Musabayev said back in December. True, he later disowned his words, and the Kazakh Foreign Ministry advised journalists "not to create a stir around the situation." Be that as it may, the Foreign Ministries of the two countries managed to exchange notes. Russia threatened Kazakhstan to end cooperation in the field of space exploration on all joint projects.
The Kazakh Foreign Ministry reported that it had not received any note. Yerlan Idrisov, who urgently flew to Moscow, said that Astana did not intend to refuse cooperation with Russia in the space industry. The blame for everything, as usual, were the journalists who, they say, misinterpreted the words of the head of Kazkosmos.
Roscosmos, in turn, explained that limiting the number of spacecraft launches with Proton-M rockets in 2013 will not allow fulfilling contractual obligations under five commercial programs, which is fraught with the termination of international contracts and the return of $ 500 million to customers. If the agreement fails, Roscosmos will demand compensation for losses from the Kazakh side.
However, Sergei Lavrov suggested not to attach importance to "ordinary musical correspondence". “Questions arise, they need to be resolved. And earlier there were questions about the number of launches of Proton launch vehicles - this is due to Kazakhstan's concern about the environmental consequences of these processes. The Russian side is doing everything necessary to improve environmental aspects. The Proton missiles have already been modernized, and it is not the first year that we have additionally coordinated the number of launches,”Lavrov said.
Chopped down "Poplar"
With the collapse of the USSR, hard times came for Baikonur. The cosmodrome turned out to be on the territory of sovereign Kazakhstan. The country's leadership declared Baikonur its national treasure and tried to "attach" it with maximum benefit. Russia, as the legal successor of the USSR, was put forward deliberately impracticable requirements for the operating conditions of the cosmodrome. The discussed rental amount reached seven billion dollars a year. In addition, Kazakh politicians offered Russia to pay for the damage caused by missile launches, according to the so-called "environmental indemnity". Moscow, for its part, was willing to pay about $ 80 million a year for the lease of Baikonur.
Finally, in 1994 Russia and Kazakhstan managed to come to an agreement. An agreement was signed on the basic principles and conditions for the use of the Baikonur cosmodrome for a period of 20 years. Russia undertook to pay $ 115 million annually for rent, half of this amount in real money, and the rest was read off by the reciprocal services of Russia, as well as the cancellation of Kazakhstan's debts. “Later, more than once between Russia and Kazakhstan there were disputes over the exploitation of Baikonur,” Azhdar Kurtov, a leading expert of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, told Echo. There was a period when the Kazakh authorities prohibited the launch of Proton-class missiles due to unsuccessful launches. For the accident of the Dnepr carrier rocket in 2006, Russia paid 1.1 million dollars, for the crashed Proton in 2007 - 8 million.
According to Kurtov, the current exacerbation of "space" relations between the two neighboring countries is due to Kazakhstan's strong desire to pave its own way into near-earth orbit. A joint venture was created that developed the national project Baiterek (Topolyok): launchers for Russian Angara missiles. However, this project did not meet Russian interests. It was decided in Moscow that Angara would be launched not from Baikonur, but from the new Vostochny cosmodrome, which is being built in the Amur Region.
According to Azhdar Kurtov, Russia's decision is natural, since "it is impossible to develop supernova technologies that are inevitably connected with the country's defense capability, and rely on the leadership of Kazakhstan: whether it will allow launches or not." It was then that Astana tightened its rhetoric and demanded to revise the terms of the lease agreement upward. The parties signed a new agreement until 2050, according to which Russia pays Kazakhstan $ 115 million a year as a rent for the use of Baikonur, another $ 100 million is invested in the operation and modernization of its facilities, and $ 170 million is transferred every year to maintain and develop the infrastructure of the cosmodrome. and cities.
In the story of Angara, Russia is also not without sin, says Alexander Sobyanin, head of the Association for Border Cooperation. In a conversation with Echo, he recalled that in December 2004 an agreement was signed on the creation of the Baiterek rocket and space complex to launch the Angara launch vehicles. But the timing of the work was violated by the Russian side, and the cost of the project was increased sevenfold and brought almost two billion dollars. Initially, it was planned that the "Angara" will take off in 2008, but later Moscow postponed the dates for 2010-2011, but it will not take off in 2013 either. This project is simply unprofitable for Russia, and it seems that now no one is going to do "Angar".
Astana understood this and asked to keep the Baiterek program and reorient in it to Zenit-type missiles. “Some representatives of the Russian side perceived this approach of the Kazakh partners as surrender and are trying to press even more,” Sobyanin believes. - But Astana was the first to compromise. We need to appreciate it and move on together."
Compromise is inevitable
Nevertheless, the leaderships of the two countries believe that the existing contradictions are not a reason for revising the long-term agreement on cooperation in the space sphere, which must be strictly observed.
In Kazakhstan, many are convinced that the increase in tensions in relations between Astana and Moscow in the space sector is disadvantageous to either side. “For Russia, this is not only a space project, but also a certain political component of its presence in Kazakhstan,” Dosym Satpayev, director of the Risk Assessment Group, said in an interview with Echo. "Kazakhstan, in turn, has every right to proceed from its national interests and be more demanding."
Russia's announcement about the construction of its own Vostochny cosmodrome radically changes the role of Baikonur in the implementation of its space programs. All federal orders for launches of defense and manned satellites, which are currently being carried out from Baikonur, are likely to be transferred to Vostochny. In any case, this is what is assumed in Astana, where they see this as Russia's inevitable withdrawal from Baikonur. Moscow, however, does not hide plans to transfer at least military launches to Vostochny by 2020.
Kazakhstan, evaluating itself as a space power, began to prepare for independent management of Baikonur. Back in 2008, Prime Minister Karim Massimov instructed Kazkosmos to prepare a plan for the development of the cosmodrome after 2016, but without the active participation of Russia. However, experts say that the cosmodrome is designed to operate precisely Russian space technology. “It is impossible to replace Russia at Baikonur. This could be done only if Kazakhstan became a highly developed state, created its own school of space exploration. In the meantime, he only keeps his finger on the pulse of financial flows,”says Azhdar Kurtov.
Talgat Musabayev believes that with or without Russia, Baikonur should not fall into disrepair: "Kazakhstan itself begins its work in this direction and invests certain funds for this." According to him, 90 billion tenge, or about 18 billion rubles, are allocated from the country's budget for the development of the space industry. “I don’t know how cooperation with other states will develop, what forms of maintenance of this cosmodrome will be in the future, maybe it will also be a lease. But, according to our forecasts, Baikonur should live and develop,”Musabayev said. Astana is conducting active negotiations on this matter with many countries. Agreements have already been signed with France, Israel and Ukraine.
According to Alexander Sobyanin, Kazakhstan declares itself an ally of Russia, and itself perceives the situation as a forced dependence on Moscow, which must be overcome so carefully that Russia remains in Baikonur. “Astana must understand that it is impossible to replace the Russian space program with either the American, or the Chinese, or any other. Whether the Kazakhs like it or not, no one will replace the Russians at the cosmodrome,”Sobyanin says.
Azhdar Kurtov, for his part, is convinced that Russia, even if the Vostochny cosmodrome is put into operation, will not leave Baikonur completely. Therefore, the compromise reached by the presidents of the two countries was inevitable. Azhdar Kurtov is sure: "Russia does not have much success in the post-Soviet space, so the Kremlin will not want to lose Kazakhstan and for this, most likely, it will make some concessions."
Baikonur: history with geography
The decision to build a testing ground for cosmonautics and testing of combat intercontinental ballistic missiles in the USSR was made in 1953. When choosing a location, two factors were mainly taken into account: proximity to the equator and safety in case of falling parts of aircraft. The Kazakh steppe became the most suitable. The construction of the landfill began in 1955 at the Tyuratam junction near the Syrdarya and the Moscow-Tashkent railway line. The Kazakh aul Baikonur, which gave the name to the cosmodrome, was actually located about 300 kilometers away: they wanted to misinform a potential enemy with the name.
The cosmodrome was erected in record time: already on May 15, 1957, the first launch of the R-7 rocket, created by Korolev, was carried out here. On April 12, 1961, the first earthling Yuri Gagarin took off from Baikonur on the Vostok spacecraft. The cosmodrome stretches 85 kilometers from north to south and 125 kilometers from west to east. It also includes the fall fields of the worked-out stages of carriers: 22 sites with a total area of 4.8 million hectares. Launch sites of all the main types of Russian launch vehicles are located at the cosmodrome: Proton, Zenit, Energia, Molniya, Cyclone, Soyuz, Vostok. The main objects are 52 launch complexes, 34 technical positions, three computing centers, two mechanical assembly plants, two airfields, and a thermal power station. About 30 percent of military launches are carried out from Baikonur.
