U.s. Withdrawal From Abm, Russia's Adoption Of New Satellite Programme Are Unrelated

There's no link between the United States' bowing out from the antiballistic missile defense treaty and Russia's adoption of the programme for developing the Global Navigation Satellite System. These two events have merely coincided in time, chief of the Russian Aerospace Agency, Rosaviakosmos, Yuri Koptev said at a news briefing in Moscow Tuesday. "The GLONASS system is many-sided and multifunctional. Aside from determining the location of objects on earth and at sea /up to 1-meter accuracy/ for peaceful ends, it can be used, if need be, for defense. For instance, for guiding high-accuracy weapons and neutralizing enemy fire weapons", said Koptev. GLONASS, however, will be used for peaceful ends, he stressed, for ascertaining routes of ships and overland transport and in rescue operations in hard-of-access regions, for one.