MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted a protocol to the State Duma (the lower house of parliament), which will make it possible to deploy units of unmanned aerial vehicles to the Russian military base in Kyrgyzstan. The document has been included into the State Duma’s digital database.
"The protocol adds terms concerning unmanned aerial systems and unmanned aerial vehicles to the relevant agreement, eliminates any discrepancies between Russian and Kyrgyz laws on the use of unmanned aerial aircraft, and lays down rules for arranging the flights of Russian unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft in Kyrgyzstan’s airspace," an explanatory note said. In particular, once the protocol enters into force, Moscow will have a chance "to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles to the Russian military base and start using them."
In addition, the document points out that a joint inventory, which was conducted when Russia was provided with a temporary right to use the military base’s land, found that the actual size of the land was inconsistent with that enshrined in a bilateral agreement, exceeding it by 58.32 hectares. In this regard, the protocol "sets a new (higher) annual rent for Russia’s use of the land and a segment of the local water area, which will amount to $4,794,095." The Russian Defense Ministry will use the funds it receives from the federal budget every year to pay the rent.
The protocol also says that if Russia shoulders the cost of renewing the artificial runway pavement at the Kant airfield, which Bishkek handed over to Moscow for temporary use, then the property right on those permanent improvements will belong to Russia, but if the agreement is terminated, it will be transferred to Kyrgyzstan.