Russian-Belarusian oil row may obstruct ABM system : Report

Moscow, Jan 10 (UNI) The ongoing Russian-Belarusian oil and gas row may worsen bilateral military relations as Minsk demands payment for Russian military facilities in Belarus, a leading Russian daily has said.

Belarussian demand in military spheres mainly concerned the Uzel Baranovichi installation and its Volga early-warning radar, which has a 120-degree scanning radius able to detect ballistic missile launches in Germany, France and Britain, tracking spacecraft several thousand kilometers away, popular Russian daily Moskovsky Komsomolets said.

The paper said it will also affect the submarine control facility in Vileika in the Minsk District.

The Uzel Baranovichi site assumed vital importance in the 1990s after Russia closed its early-warning radar station in Skrunde, Latvia.

Former Belarusian Defence Minister Col. General Pavel Kozlovsky said that without the Baranovichi base, Russia would not be able to control its western sector, because other radars have a range of just 60 kilometers and would be unable to warn air defence and anti-ballistic missile units in time.

Experts said Russia would still need the more powerful Baranovichi radar even after it commissions an early-warning radar, now on experimental combat duty near St. Petersburg, next year, because the Belarusian installation is located several hundred kilometers further west.

Moscow, which still uses the radar free of charge, has allowed Belarusian air defence units to test fire S-300 surface-to-air missiles at Russian ranges without cost.

Russia uses several installations, including the Vileika facility, to keep an eye on its submarines around the world. However, Moscow would lose control over large areas of the ocean if Minsk shuts the facility down, the paper said.

UNI