Russia and Azerbaijan are negotiating the terms of Russia's continued lease of the Gabala radar station. The station does not have much military value for Russia but does enable Russia to maintain a physical presence in Azerbaijan.
The Gabala radar station is not particularly valuable militarily to Moscow, but it serves as a physical and intelligence foothold in Azerbaijan. Baku, meanwhile, needs to balance against its larger and more powerful neighbors and is in a position that allows it to raise the price of its continued defense cooperation with Moscow.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan negotiated the terms of the lease and in 2002 the two countries signed an agreement according to which Russia leased the station from Azerbaijan until 24 December 2012 for $7 million per year rent, $5 million per year for electricity and $10 million per year for other services.
Russia has been in talks with Azerbaijan since mid-2011, hoping to extend the lease on this key station in its ballistic missile early warning system (BMEWS) to 2025.
Now, the interesting thing is that some Russian media outlets are claiming that Azerbaijan is dramatically increasing the cost of the lease agreement because it wants to take an anti-Iran stance. Obviously, here is no ground to use Gabala Radar Station against Iran by Azerbaijan, either Russia and US have more capable similar stations. It seems that every little political or military development is being linked to the situation in Iran, no matter tenuous the connection, in order to dramatize the current state of affairs.
The Gabala radar station is not particularly valuable militarily to Moscow, but it serves as a physical and intelligence foothold in Azerbaijan. Baku, meanwhile, needs to balance against its larger and more powerful neighbors and is in a position that allows it to raise the price of its continued defense cooperation with Moscow.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan negotiated the terms of the lease and in 2002 the two countries signed an agreement according to which Russia leased the station from Azerbaijan until 24 December 2012 for $7 million per year rent, $5 million per year for electricity and $10 million per year for other services.
Russia has been in talks with Azerbaijan since mid-2011, hoping to extend the lease on this key station in its ballistic missile early warning system (BMEWS) to 2025.
Now, the interesting thing is that some Russian media outlets are claiming that Azerbaijan is dramatically increasing the cost of the lease agreement because it wants to take an anti-Iran stance. Obviously, here is no ground to use Gabala Radar Station against Iran by Azerbaijan, either Russia and US have more capable similar stations. It seems that every little political or military development is being linked to the situation in Iran, no matter tenuous the connection, in order to dramatize the current state of affairs.
Gabala is a rapidly developing region that has invested heavily in tourism over recent years, and has changed a great deal since the Soviet era. The developing tourism facilities in Gabala are suffering because of the radar station due to a very high electro-magnetic impulse, and Azerbaijan is losing money every year. The losses have to be recouped; especially if we take into consideration that due to inflation $7 million today is not the same as in 2002. Of course, Azerbaijan has another reason to be dissatisfied with the current arrangement, which is the fact that Russia, according to official sources, is planning to spend 23 trillion rubles ($770 billion) on arms between now and 2020. In this light, the proposed rent hike seems less unreasonable.
Sources:
News.Az
globalsec..
STRATFOR
en.wikipedia
todayszaman
Sources:
News.Az
globalsec..
STRATFOR
en.wikipedia
todayszaman
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