Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 7 /Trend, D. Mukhtarov/
Kazakhstan demands that Russia complies with its laws at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakh Minister of Environmental Protection Nurlan Kapparov said on Monday, during a Government Hour in the Majilis (lower house of parliament) of Kazakhstan.
In particular, Kazakhstan wants to extend the application of the Environmental Code on cosmodrome's territory.
"We put an issue before the Russian side with regards to the 'Proton', for them to begin to reduce the number of rocket launches on environmentally hazardous fuel - heptyl, and move to more environmentally friendly fuel. Moreover, during the discussion with the Russian side, we raised the question to extend the application of our Environmental Code on Baikonur's territory," Kapparov said.
He added that after the crash of rockets in July 2013, Kazakh specialists faced with the fact that "the Kazakh services do not have any jurisdiction on Baikonur's territory and can not check anything".
"In the end we checked it all, but it is the territory of Kazakhstan, and we want the Environmental Code to cover it. The Russian side preliminarily supported our approach. Supplement Project to the agreement on Baikonur was handed over to Russia through the Foreign Ministry. The issue is being considered, we hope that it will be resolved positively," the Minister said.
It was previously reported that the first Proton-M rocket was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on September 30, for the first time after the crash that happened in July. It is planned to launch four Proton carrier rockets from the cosmodrome till late 2013.