ASTANA. Feb 4 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan will insist on Russia's compensation for environmental damages it sustained due to the crash of a Proton-M launch vehicle, Kazakh Environmental Protection and Water Resources Minister Nurlan Kapparov said.
"We negotiated with the administration of Roscosmos and they received our letter and started to process it; we are expecting their response and keep sending them reminders. This is a rather complex matter and we will press our claims," Kapparov told a briefing at the president's Central Communications Service on Tuesday.
He said the ministry "was closely monitoring the issue." "We have made claim for 13.6 billion tenge," the minister said. The current exchange rate is 155.49 tenge to the dollar.
A Proton-M launch vehicle carrying three Glonass-M satellites blasted off from the 81st launch site of Baikonur on July 2, 2013. It sharply deviated from the preset course almost immediately, fell into pieces in mid-air, hit the ground near the launch site and exploded. The Proton-M was carrying about 600 tonnes of heptyl, amyl and kerosene at the moment of the crash.