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Russia may suspend operation of 11 GPS stations in its territory as of June 1

Stations which could stop their operation were used to transmit seismic information to the U.S. authorities

MOSCOW, June 01, /ITAR-TASS/. The operation of 11 GPS (Global Positioning System) stations may be suspended in Russian on Sunday. That, however, is not going to affect the operation of civilian smart phones; navigators and other devices that ordinary Russians use. On May 13, Russian Vice-Premier Dmitry Rogozin said that Russia would suspend the operation of 11 GPS stations located in the Kaluga and Sverdlovsk regions; the Krasnoyarsk territory; Yakutia, Irkutsk, Magadan, Southern Sakhalin and the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in retaliation to the absence of progress in talks on deployment of GLONASS stations in the United States.

On May 26, Rogozin told journalists that the GPS stations which could stop their operation on June 1 were used to transmit seismic information to the U.S. authorities. Later, he reiterated his warning that if the United States continued ignoring Russia’s proposal to deploy GLONASS in U.S. territory, Russia will stop the operation of these stations on June 1 and might start dismantling them in a month’s time on September 1.

GPS is a global satellite positioning system designed and operated by the U.S. Department of Defence. The navigation signal can also be used for civilian purposes. More than a billion people around the globe reportedly use this system. The GPS satellite grouping has about 30 functioning spacecraft.