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Russia Funds Ambitious New Cosmodrome

While a certain faction of the Russian leadership around Anatoli Chubais clings to the illusion of creating a new nanotechnology and financial services bubble, others are moving ahead to build up the real economy, with a special emphasis on space exploration and rail infrastructure.

On July 19, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin confirmed that his government would allocate the funds needed for full-scale construction of the new Vostochny Space Center, in Russia's Far East. Scheduled for completion in 2015, it should, in his view, become the first civilian national space center, and guarantee full independence of Russia's space activities.

Putin stressed the importance of a long-term perspective, saying: "It is important that the new space center will provide service for all prospective space projects, including a manned transport system, a new-generation boosters, and future interplanetary complexes." He also promoted intensified cooperation with counterpart companies and agencies in Japan, China, the EU and the U.S.

The Vostochny (“Eastern”) cosmodrome is certain to greatly increase the industrial capacity of the Far East, and encourage further investment in this huge, but sorely underpopulated, strategic region. Up to 30,000 specialists will be involved in the construction of the project near Uglegorsk, about 100 km from the border with China. What was then still the proposal to build the cosmodrome, as well as its strategic implications not only for Russia and Eurasia, but for the world, was presented by a Russian expert at the Schiller Institute conference in Germany in September 2007.

On infrastructure, the president of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin is energetically promoting high-speed lines, insisting, correctly, that such projects are essential for building the way out of the economic crisis, by boosting the real economy. In a July 20 interview with Izvestia, he praised the Chinese national infrastructure program, and said that Chinese officials had just proposed to him to “think about a high-speed service between Beijing and Berlin and Beijing and Paris! I really liked the idea.”

The Chinese side told him that the project might take more than five or ten years, but “this train will eventually run from China to Europe via Russia.” Current China-Europe freight transport takes a week. “If you imagine that Russia and China together complete a direct railway line for high-speed trains, how much quicker would that be?”, Yakunin asked.

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