Baku Demands Moscow Pay $300 Mln for Radar Lease – Media

The Gabala radar station

MOSCOW, February 29 (RIA Novosti)

Azerbaijan has demanded Russia pay $300 million instead of the previously agreed $7 million for the lease of a Soviet-era anti-missile radar in the Azeri town of Gabala, the Kommersant daily reported on Wednesday, quoting sources in the Russian foreign and defense ministries.

Russia has been in talks with Azerbaijan to extend its lease of the radar, which it has operated in line with a 2002 deal, until 2025. The current agreement is due to expire on December 24.

Russia had expected to finalize talks by June this year, because a new agreement has to be signed at least six month before the existing one expires, the newspaper said. But the talks have been strained since the Azeri authorities asked Moscow to pay almost 43 times more for the lease than it used to, the report said.

“This sum of money is unreasonably large,” the paper quoted a Defense Ministry source as saying. “We will push for it to be significantly lowered. We still hope to reach an agreement.”

Another high-ranking source told the paper that Russia may stop operating the radar “if Baku does not limit its financial appetite.”

According to the report, Foreign Ministry officials have described the Azeri demands as “agenda-driven.”

On Monday, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev called for a Russian air base in the country to be closed, accusing Moscow of failing to pay the $15 million debt for its lease and saying neither Russia nor Kyrgyzstan needed the base.

Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov promised later in the day to repay the debt by the end of February.