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#8 - JRL 8004
Russia draws up global defence project
RIA Novosti

Moscow, 6 January: Russia has developed a system of global defence, Tsitadel [citadel], which can counter space threats.

The system was drawn up by experts from the Lavochkin research and production association, a source at the Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences told RIA-Novosti, commenting on recent reports about major meteorites falling to earth in Spain.

According to the source, all components of the global defence systems have been worked out. "We have nuclear facilities and spacecraft which can destroy such objects or alter their trajectories," the source said.

At the same time experts admit that the global defence system exists only on paper and they appeal to the world scientific community to investigate thoroughly the scale of threat posed by asteroids. [passage omitted]

According to Russian experts, about 400 asteroids and 30 comets can pose danger to Earth in future. [passage omitted]

RIA-Novosti was told at the Defence Ministry that the Russian space monitoring system is currently following over 9,000 objects on different orbits. "They are working spacecraft, both Russian and foreign. They are even space waste, for instance, used missile boosters," the Defence Ministry source said.

"A major space object approaching the Earth will definitely be noticed," the source said. "The rest will depend on how much time we'll have."

According to the Defence Ministry source, in the first six months of 2003 alone, "alarm was raised in good time on over 60 occasions about space objects approaching the International Space Station dangerously closely". [passage omitted]

RIA-Novosti was told at the Russian Space Troops that they had never in their history been put on alert because of a danger of a major asteroid hitting the Earth. [passage omitted]

"By 2008 scientists have to resolve the problem of identifying the orbits of at least 90 per cent of all asteroids of over 1 km [in diameter, presumably] which can approach the Earth," a source at the Institute of Applied Astronomy has said. Scientists believe that a collision with a space object like this can lead "to a catastrophe and an inevitable death of the civilization".