[Report by Aleksandra Selezneva under the "2001 Budget" rubric: "Mir Could Fall Down on Our Heads"]

[FBIS Translated Text]

Parliamentary hearings have been held in the State Duma on the topic of "The Preservation by Russia of the Scientific and Technical Potential Which Ensures the Functioning of the Orbital Group and the Carrying Out of Manned Flights."

Russia's space activity today is carried out in accordance with the "Blueprint for National Space Policy," which was approved by the Russian Federation Government back in 1996. The blueprint clearly states that "space activity is categorized as one of Russia's highest state priorities and is afforded steady, all-around state support (political, financial, and economic)." Deputies stressed at the hearings "the need to draw up the 2001 budget" specifically on the basis of that blueprint.

Deputies expressed their certainty that for Russia to remain a space power the 2001 budget must allocate far more resources to the relevant items than is envisaged in the present draft. It incorporates a figure of 4.0709 billion rubles [R]; this is less than was allocated in the 2000 budget and is only 48% of the amount of funding determined by Russia's Federal Space Program for 2001-2005. Such funding will essentially lead to the scaling down of the main areas of space activity (communications, television broadcasting, navigation, environmental monitoring, fundamental space research....), will prevent the Baykonur space center being operated to the full, and will jeopardize Russia's commitments as regards the creation of the International Space Station.

As was stressed at the hearings, funding for the work to ensure a controlled descent of the Mir space station from orbit has not yet been secured. It is necessary to find R600 million for these purposes. Otherwise, Mir could fall down on our heads....

For the time being Russia is still a great space power, but only for the time being.... As Yuriy Koptev, general director of the Russian Aerospace Agency stressed, specialists aged 30 to 40 -- the most employable age -- are leaving institutes and plants. The problem of the brain drain is being particularly felt in the space and aviation sectors. Whole scientific schools are disappearing.

The recent fire at the Ostankino TV tower showed that it was possible to maintain Russia-wide television broadcasting only thanks to satellites. It is the orbital group of Russian space craft which enables the transmission of Central TV's two programs not only to our territory but to the countries of the CIS too.

Anatoliy Kiselev, general director of the Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Center, who took part in the parliamentary hearings, considers that the sphere of telecommunications has proved to be the most promising. There is a constant need for satellites felt and the demands for launches is therefore increasing.

The Russian space program does have something to offer the world. There are a host of projects, some better than others. If we can obtain more money for them! That is precisely why the main recommendation of the parliamentary hearings is that it is necessary to appropriate resources of R8.3760 billion under the "Research and Utilization of Outer Space" heading when the 2001 federal budget is examined. That is to say, double what is planned.

[Description of Source: Moscow Rossiyskaya Gazeta in Russian -- Government daily newspaper.]

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