MOSCOW, July 7. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a draft protocol on halting the use of the Emba training range in Kazakhstan by Russia’s Armed Forces and ordered to sign it, according to the relevant order posted on the government’s legal information website.
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The protocol terminates the 1995 Russian-Kazakh agreement on the use of the Emba training range (test support base No. 5580) and the 1996 Russian-Kazakh agreement on the lease of this training range.
The Russian president instructed "to accept the governmental proposal to sign this protocol and entrust Russia’s Defense and Foreign Ministries to hold talks with Kazakhstan in order to sign the protocol on behalf of Russia upon reaching the agreement," according to the presidential order.
The Emba training range is located in the Aktobe Region in Kazakhstan 200 kilometers (124 miles) southward of Aktobe.
The training range was set up in 1960 to carry out research work, test advanced military hardware and air defense systems and hold air defense live-firing exercises.
As Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said earlier, "we agreed to draft a protocol on the Emba training range to continue this work. Thus, another over 300,000 hectares will be returned to Kazakhstan’s national economy."