November 26, 2007 (LPAC)--Russian Space Agency chief Anatoli Perminov, Amur Region Governor Nikolai Kolesov, and the new Presidential Representative to the Far East Federal District Oleg Safonov each stated earlier this month, that the decision has been taken to build a new space launch site in Russia's Far East, utilizing the facilities of the Svobodny military launch site that was mothballed earlier this year. The adjacent military town of Uglegorsk will also be preserved, along with at least some of its skilled manpower. This has vast potential to further the economic development of the region. According to Perminov, the new center will be called Cosmodrome Vostochny (meaning "Eastern").

While the Plesetsk launch site in Russia's Far North will continue as a military facility, Cosmodrome Vostochny is destined to function side-by-side as a second civilian space launch center with the Baikonur Cosmodrome, currently leased by Russia from Kazakstan.

Moscow sources familiar with the project said that President Vladimir Putin has already signed a decree on Cosmodrome Vostochny. Perminov said Nov. 14, that the project will be fleshed out during 2008. Kolesov, who has campaigned heavily for the Svobodny site since taking office last June, was quoted in the Amurskaya Pravda newspaper, as saying that 160 billion rubles (about $6.5 billion) of federal funding will be allocated for the cosmodrome.

Another active campaigner for the project, Development Movement founder Yuri Krupnov, has begun pushing for Cosmodrome Vostochny to serve as an anchor for a new development corridor in the region, extending eastward to the cities of Khabarovsk and Komsomolsk-on-Amur, and thence across a bridge or tunnel link to Sakhalin Island and Hokkaido, Japan. This Eastern Development Corridor was the subject of a lengthy article by Krupnov, appearing Nov. 23 on the KM.ru web site. Krupnov's earlier summary of the Svobodny (Vostochny) Cosmodrome project, including the Eastern Development Corridor, was presented to the September 2007 conference of the Schiller Institute in Kiedrich, Germany, and was published in EIR of Sept. 28, 2007.

Governor Kolesov also advocates the Far East Space Cluster concept for the repopulation and revitalization of the region.