MOSCOW. July 23 (Interfax) - The Russian missile attack warning system's Balkhash radar station that is being closed in Kazakhstan has exhausted its performance potential, and all advanced radars of the system are now based in Russian territory and are highly effective, Russian Space Forces Commander Col. Gen. Alexander Golovko said.
"Today, all advanced stations are located in the territory of the country, allowing us to ensure double protection in this direction," Golovko said at the Russian Federation Council on Wednesday.
The Balkhash station has exhausted its performance potential, a circumstance that contributes to the high cost of its maintenance, and has low efficiency, he said.
"We are simply shutting down the old station. It entered service in 1964, and spare parts needed to maintain it are no longer produced. This is very expensive and onerous," he said.
A unit of Russian missile forces will remain in Kazakhstan, he said.
In addition, Russia will continue transferring data from its missile attack warning system to Kazakhstan after the closure of the Balkhash station, Golovko said.
"We have an obligation to provide them with missile attack information. We will fulfill it this year. There is the Krokus alert system, and such a system will be installed for Kazakhstan this year," he said.
The day before, the Russian State Duma renounced an agreement with Kazakhstan on using the Balkhash radar station as part of Russia's missile attack warning system.
The Russian president earlier made a decision to stop using the Balkhash radar by Russia and to renounce the relevant agreement. Since the agreement was ratified by a federal law dated November 25, 2015, a decision on its renunciation should also be adopted through a federal law.
This document, which was signed in Moscow on December 2, 2014, specified the terms for the center's operation, including the frontiers of its land plots, which were set by a 1994 Russian-Kazakh treaty.
Under the agreement, a Dnepr radar, engineer equipment, communications centers, and other facilities of the Balkhash station's infrastructure shall be transferred to the Russian Defense Ministry for use. The Russian ministry, in turn, is responsible for covering the station's operational costs and for "training Kazakh command staff and engineers for the joint use of the Balkhash station."
Additionally, the agreement allowed the Russian military to provide Kazakhstan with information on the missile situation, space exploration by foreign stages, space objects' dangerous approaches to Kazakh satellites, and orbits of foreign reconnaissance craft flying over Kazakh territory.
The agreement was signed for five years with the possibility of automatic extension for subsequent three-year periods, if none of the parties notifies the other party of its intention to terminate the document at least six months before it expires.