Russia will resume the operation of the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan. However, this collaboration will be put to an end sooner or later, military analyst Vladislav Shurygin told Pravda.Ru.
The Gabala radar station was built in the Soviet era. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the station became the property of Azerbaijan. Since 2002, Russia has continued to use the station on a rental basis. The agreement on the status, principles and conditions of the use of the Gabala radar station between Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation expired on December 9th, Trend reports. The Russian side sent a note to stop the operation of the radar station on 10 December.
Russia's Defense Ministry started raising the question of the lease extension last year. Baku and Moscow have recently held talks on the subject, but the parties could not agree on the price. Russia was paying $7 million a year to Azerbaijan for the operation of the radar, then the price was raised to 15 million. The last increase - 20 million - is much higher than the original price.
"There is a process of negotiations. One should not attach great importance to this. Russia will have to leave Gabala some time soon. For the time being, Russia has nothing to replace Gabala with, because the Voronezh radar station is not ready yet. The Gabala radar will work again after the negotiations, when the parties agree on something. But Russia will have to leave in the future anyway," said Shurygin.