DUSHANBE, October 5, — Some armaments and military hardware of the 201st Russian military base, which is deployed in Tajikistan, will be handed over to the republic next year, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov remarked at a meeting with journalists in Dushanbe on October 5, following a visit to the Russian military base.
The minister said that a special attention should be paid to three main issues: operating conditions of armaments and military hardware, social problems and conditions of service of Russian servicemen in Tajikistan.
As it had been reported earlier, Serdyukov arrived in Tajikistan on October 4 to participate in meetings of charter organs of the CIS and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
During his stay in Tajikistan, Russian minister is also scheduled to visit Russia’s space-surveillance center Okno (Window) in Norak.
Russia”s Okno space-surveillance complex, located at an altitude of 2,200 meters in the mountains near the Tajik eastern city of Norak, was commissioned in March 2004. It is a unique space-monitoring installation capable of tracking space objects orbiting the Earth at altitudes 2,000-40,000 kilometers
The Okno system is fully automated. It performs autonomous monitoring sessions at night in real time, constantly processing information about detected space objects. Detection is passive, based on reflection of the sun”s rays from the surface of space objects, which allows it to consume a small amount of energy. The role of the center is particularly important in emergency situations, such as a loss of communication with spacecraft or a malfunction of on-board telecommunications systems.
