Russian State Duma Prolongates Agreements On Military Bases Deployment In Belarus

• 14.09.2022, 15:29

The agreement was extended for 25 years.

The State Duma of Russia has ratified protocols on the extension of the use of two Russian military facilities in Belarus, according to the website of the Lower House of the Russian Parliament.

It was the initiative of the Russian government.

Intergovernmental protocols to previously concluded Russian-Belarusian agreements provide for a 25-year extension of the use of two Russian military bases on the territory of Belarus: the Baranavichy Radio Technical Centre, designed to automatically detect and track ballistic missiles and space objects, and the Vileika Radio Station (Russian naval facility).

Presenting the documents for ratification, Alexander Sinenko, Plenipotentiary Representative of the Government of the Russian Federation at the State Duma, noted that the termination of the agreements would lead to the withdrawal of the Baranavichy node from the Russian missile attack warning system, and the stop of Vileika would lead to a reduction in the “zone of stable radio communication with submarines when they perform tasks in the Atlantic Ocean".

Russian MP Konstantin Zatulin noted that "opponents of Belarusian-Russian integration" regularly raised the issue of the need to close these two facilities.

“But I must pay tribute to the leadership of the Republic of Belarus: the facilities functioned as usual and free,” BelTA quotes Zatulin.