Russia ends deal to run radar station in Azerbaijan

New York Times : In 1985, the Soviet Union opened a major radar installation in Gabala, Azerbaijan. For the past decade, Russia has been renting the facility from the host country for $7 million per year. Negotiations to renew the lease fell apart after Azerbaijan demanded an increase in rent to $300 million per year. The post at Gabala provided radar coverage over much of the Middle East, which was used for monitoring missile launches in that area. Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin, says that other radar sites already cover the same areas that the Gabala post did and that there will be no threat to Russia’s ability to monitor the airspace. Russia has maintained lease agreements with several former Soviet states for key military installations, including the base of the Russian navy’s Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine and the Baikonur space facility in Kazakhstan. Although there have been previous renegotiations for many of those facilities, this is the first time that Russia had not agreed to new terms.