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Putin issues order to deliver Vostok station’s winter modules to Antarctica in 2021

Efforts to refurbish Russia’s Antarctic stations are underway based on the president’s order

MOSCOW, May 7. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has handed down instructions to deliver the modules of the Vostok research station’s winter complex to Antarctica in 2021. According to the Kremlin’s website, the instructions emanate from a meeting of the Russian Geographical Society Board of Trustees, which took place in April.

"The Russian government is to make the necessary decisions to ensure that the modules of the Vostok station’s new winter complex are delivered to Antarctica in 2021 so that it can go into full operation in 2024," the message reads. The instructions are set to be implemented by June 1, 2021.

Efforts to refurbish Russia’s Antarctic stations are underway based on the president’s order. The Sevmorput icebreaker cargo ship was expected to deliver the new winter complex to Antarctica earlier but the vessel, which had left Russia’s St. Petersburg in October 2020, suffered damage to its steering mechanism and to a screw propeller blade off Angola’s coast. As a result, a decision was made to return the Sevmorput back to St. Petersburg and postpone the delivery of the winter complex, which consists of 133 modules with a total area of 1,911 square meters, to 2021.

The Vostok research station was founded on December 16, 1957. Today, it is Russia’s only land-locked Antarctic station. The station underwent two renovations (in 1974 and 1982) and was temporarily closed down three times. All of the facility’s infrastructure needs to be replaced, old buildings are not just in critical condition but are fully or partially buried three to five meters under snow.

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