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mobile sea platform to the United States.
The Antonov An-124-100 aircraft brought the DM-SL upper stage, to be fitted on a Zenit 3SL rocket, to Long Beach, California, Polet said in a statement.
The manufacturer of DM-SL's is Russian corporation Energia.
Sea Launch has already carried out two successful launches since the start of 2008.
Polet specializes in carrying large-sized Russian and foreign-made space equipment and has been the Russian space agency's general carrier since 1999.
For some years, it has been one of Russia's top five airlines for cargo transportation volumes.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian defense company Rosoboronexport attaches great importance to developing and strengthening cooperation with foreign partners in the field of outer space research, the company said in a statement, released on the occasion of a successful launch to the orbit of another German satellite.
The company has launched 25 satellites into earth orbit by Cosmos-3M and Zenit-SSL launch vehicles in recent years, the statement said. "Contracts for the launch of military, civil and dual-purpose spacecraft for Algeria, the United Kingdom, Germany, the European Space Agency, Italy, China, Nigeria, South Korea, Turkey, Sweden and other countries have been successful," the statement said.
Rosoboronexport "offers to foreign customers the design and manufacture of spacecraft and their systems, as well as research and development of space technologies."
Rosoboronexport cooperates with more than 60 foreign countries.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Rosoboronexport will offer Latin American countries an integrated coastal zone control system at the 15th International Air and Space Fair FIDAE-2008, which will take place from March 31 throughout April 6 in Chili.
"According to Russian expert assessments, one of these complex's is equivalent to two or three reconnaissance aircraft, up to 80 unmanned aircraft and up to 20 patrol boats as to its mission," Rosoboronexport said in a statement on Friday.
It is proposed to create a coastal zone monitoring and control system through the integration of widely used general purpose means, for example ship-traffic control systems deployed in the interests of the navy, coastal guards, customs and rescue, as well as other agencies concerned.
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Preparations continue at Baikonur space center for the takeoff of a Zenit-3SLB launch vehicle with a DM-SLB upper stage and Israel's AMOS3 satellite, a source at the space center told Interfax on Friday.
Israeli specialists are conducting independent tests of the satellite and preparing its engine for fueling planned for next week in the clean chamber of the assembly tower of pad No. 31, the source said.
The takeoff is expected at the end of April.
MINSK. March 24 (Interfax) - Belarus will choose a site for building a national space mission control in April or May this year, National Academy of Sciences Presidium Chairman Mikhail Myasnikovich told Interfax.
"We are considering three districts now. These are Pleshchenitsy, Smolevichi, and Dzerzhinsk. A final decision will be made in April or May," Myasnikovich said.
One of the main requirements to be met by the future site is that it be elevated in relation to surrounding terrain, he said.
There is a 346-meter-high hill near Dzerzhinsky, and Pleshchenitsy is located near the Logoiskaya Ridge, he said.
It was reported earlier that Belarus decided that a new Belarusian spacecraft, whose construction is to be completed by the end of 2009, must be controlled solely from the country's territory.
"Our BelKA [the first Belarusian satellite, which crashed in 2006] was tied to Russian infrastructure. Information from it was coming to Minsk autonomously, but commands were sent to the Russian space mission control. The spacecraft was handled through Russian Defense Ministry ground telemetry stations," Myasnikovich said earlier.
"Now we have set ourselves the goal to concentrate all control in Belarus," he said.
TBILISI. March 24 (Interfax) - Georgian State Minister for Reintegration Temur Yakobashvili has dismissed Tskhinvali's accusations that Georgia was involved in the car explosion incident the day before, which injured a North Ossetian peacekeeper and a local resident.
Tskhinvali officials earlier stated that the explosive device that was disguised as a household item was given to the Ossetian peacekeeper by a Georgian national in the village of Okona in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone and detonated several minutes later.
The peacekeeper and the local resident who were injured in the explosion in South Ossetian are in critical condition, both are being treated at local hospital for severe injuries.
Tskhinvali blamed Georgian security forces for the terror attack.
"The de-facto authorities in Tskhinvali are trying every method to draw the Georgian authorities into their provocations. Georgia has never resorted to terror attacks," State Minister Yakobashili told journalists on Monday.
This is not the first case when Tskhinvali is trying to accuse Georgia of terrorism, he said.
"Several days ago Ossetian militants opened fire on Georgian posts in the conflict zone from the positions of Russian peacekeepers in order to cause return fire and draw them into a confrontation," Yakobashvili said.
The Georgian authorities want to settle the conflict in the Tskhinvali region peacefully, he said.
MINSK. March 24 (Interfax) - The Belarusian First National Channel has reported that the U.S. embassy ran a spy network in Belarus under the cover of combating terrorism.
The footage shown on TV on Sunday said that the embassy in Minsk established an identification team of some 10 people. The purpose of the team was to collect information for the FBI for use against Belarus.
Interfax has yet to obtain any official comments from the U.S. embassy on the issue.
The TV channel said the information was transferred to a supervisor -an FBI career officer who worked as a diplomat at the embassy.
Belarusian journalists claimed that the team was supplied with special photo and video cameras, binoculars and telephones. Posing as ordinary people team members were supposed to register everything of interest for the U.S. security service.
Team members were not allowed to visit the embassy or contact any of its staff members with the exception of the supervisor. A secret safe house was arranged half a kilometer away from the embassy.
The report said that almost all team members were identified on March 13 during a check of documents at the safe house.
KYIV. March 24 (Interfax) - There are no plans to change the format of Ukrainian peacekeepers' participation in the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR), Ukrainian Defense Minster Yuriy Yekhanurov said in an interview with the Kommersant-Ukraine newspaper published on Monday.
The situation in the responsibility zone of the Ukrainian peacekeeping contingent is stable, the minister added.
Speaking about the expansion of Ukraine's peacekeeping activity, Yekhanurov said that such proposals have not been made by Ukraine.
Ukrainian peacekeeping units were deployed in Kosovo on September 1, 1999. As of now, there are 185 Ukrainian peacekeepers serving in the Ukrainian-Polish peacekeeping battalion UkrPolbat. They are stationed at the U.S. base Bondsteel and Camp Breza in Brezovica.
KYIV. March 24 (Interfax) - Ukraine's Defense Minister Yury Yekhanurov has said in an interview with the Kommersant Ukraine newspaper that the Defense Ministry needs 12 million hryvni ($1/5.05 hryvni.) to complete the overhaul of the only Ukrainian submarine Zaporizhzhia, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's spokesperson said.
"That is, a million for each month," Yekhanurov said. The budget does not have this money, he said.
The financial issue will be resolved, he said. But for now it is hard to say anything about the future fate of the submarine, the minister said.
The Ukrainian naval forces need the submarine to be able to conduct certain exercises and practice a certain range of tasks, he said.
Earlier, Yekhanurov said that the Zaporizhzhia submarine would be repaired and tested as early as 2009. The issue as to whether the submarine should be sold was also raised several times.
MOSCOW. March 24 (Interfax-AVN) - The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is planning to develop its Kanal ("Channel") preventive operations into a permanent regional anti-drug project, the CSTO secretariat told Interfax-AVN on Monday.
"This issue will be discussed at the next meeting of the CSTO Coordination Council of senior anti-drug officials due to be held in Kazakhstan's capital Astana on Thursday, March 27," a source said.
As a result of two Kanal operations held jointly by the CSTO members in 2007 more than 30 tons of various drugs were seized and thousands of weapons were found, the Organization's secretariat said.
At the meeting in Astana members of the Coordination Council will also have to approve a list of information resources to be included in the common database containing records on trafficking of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors and countering their illicit traffic. In addition, senior anti-drug officials are planning to consider creating a CSTO list of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors and the Council's work plan for 2008.
CSTO members are Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
TBILISI. March 24 (Interfax) - A final decision on Georgia's participation in the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) will be made at the last moment of the NATO summit in Bucharest, Georgian Foreign Minister David Bakradze told journalists on Monday.
"The issue has been at the stage of consultations, because it is politically complicated; and the consent of all the alliance's member states is required to make it. There is a group of countries that have actively lobbied Georgia's interests, but there are problems with some states, which we work with," he said.
"The Georgian government hopes that a final decision on Georgia's participation in the MAP will be positive," the minister said.
Bakradze also hailed the decision of the Georgian parliament to pass an appeal to the NATO members. "This will show that the membership in the alliance is a priority for the whole political spectrum, rather than just for the executive authorities," the minister said.
A number of countries led by Germany and France oppose the participation of Georgia and Ukraine in the MAP, while Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Canada favor it. All decisions in NATO are made with the consent of all 26 member states.
The NATO summit in Bucharest will take place on April 2 - 4.
TASHKENT. March 25 (Interfax-AVN) - Uzbekistan's transport police officers detained on the train from Khujand to Saratov a Tajik national trying to smuggle in a large amount of heroin.
"The pale 19-year-old young man felt unwell but tried to conceal it. A medical examination revealed that he was a 'live container'. The young man had 200 capsules with heroin in his stomach, weighing 450 grams," a spokesperson for Uzbekistan's Interior Ministry told Interfax-AVN on Tuesday.
A criminal case has been launched into this incident, an investigation is under way, the spokesperson said.
BISHKEK. March 25 (Interfax-AVN) - The Commonwealth of Independent States is developing successfully despite all the talk about a crisis within, said Mikhail Krotov, the Secretary General of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly.
"Rumors about the death of the CIS have been an exaggeration. The Commonwealth is developing successfully, although not without some difficulties, and today Kyrgyzstan is the country in the forefront," Krotov, who is in Bishkek on a visit, told journalists on Tuesday.
Kyrgyzstan presides over the CIS in 2008.
"Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev provides real coordination of the CIS activities, and everyone seems to have a positive perception of the country's work toward uniting the Commonwealth countries," Krotov said.
"Today the CIS is the most dynamically developing union of nations, its rates of economic growth for 2007 standing at 9%. This is approximately 3.5 times higher than in the European Union and even in North American countries," the Secretary General said.
"The free trade zone led to overall trade between CIS countries amounting to around $180 billion and prompted the development of common job and capital markets," Krotov said.
BEIJING. March 25 (Interfax-AVN) - The Secretariat of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has neither confirmed nor denied reports stating that Iran has officially applied for membership.
"We can neither confirm nor deny this information," a source in the SCO Secretariat told Interfax-AVN.
The source said decisions to accept new members in the organization are made by the council of the SCO countries at the recommendation of the Council of Foreign Ministers of SCO countries.
The source also said that, presently, no legal mechanisms governing the admittance of new members existed.
The SCO comprises China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Mongolia, Iran, India, and Pakistan have observer status in SCO.
MOSCOW. March 25 (Interfax-AVN) - Baku is guided by Moscow's official position on the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and wants new countries involved in the Karabakh settlement, Azerbaijan's Ambassador to Russia Polad Byul-Byul ogly said.
"Russia as such and as a member of the Minsk Group has made statements on many occasions on recognizing the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. But various political forces are free to have their opinions and express them. We, as an embassy, react to them. At the same time, we are being guided by the statements made by the Russian Foreign Ministry and by Russia's political leadership," the Azeri ambassador said in an interview published in the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper on Tuesday.
"Moscow has stated sufficiently clearly that it is against separatism in general and on the Kosovo issue in particular," he said. The Azeri ambassador also said that Russia's decision to lift its embargo on trade with Abkhazia raises questions. "Many politicians see this as an inconsistent move," he said.
The ambassador commented on the rejection by the Minsk Group co-chairmen, including Russia, of the UN resolution on Nagorno Karabakh.
"That vote was a test, after which the world for us split into supporters and opponents of the resolution," the diplomat said.
Stating that the mediator efforts of the other members of the group should be intensified, he noted the importance of the co-chairmen countries. "Of course, one can't do without Russia in the region. But it is also clear that nowhere in the world can one do without the United States. I still think that the involvement of fresh players could be discussed. Why not invite Eastern European countries - Romania or Poland, for instance?" the Azeri ambassador said.
MOSCOW. March 25 (Interfax-AVN) - Iran's application to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will be considered with regard to the interests of the organization, its members and the rationality of lifting a moratorium on the adoption of new members.
"The moratorium on the adoption of new members was not cancelled within the SCO," Russia's special presidential representative for SCO affairs, Ambassador-at-Large Leonid Moiseyev told Interfax-AVN.
"Iran's application will be looked into with regard to whether the six members of the organization can reach a consensus on the rationality of canceling the moratorium. At the same time, interests of the core, or the current six members that founded the SCO, will be our main concern," Moiseyev said.
"We view such applications as evidence of the growing authority and the attractiveness of the SCO for others," the ambassador said.
The SCO Charter provides that the organization is open, he said, adding however: "single criteria and the order of adoption new members have yet to be worked out."
The SCO consists of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India, Pakistan, Mongolia and Iran hold observer status in the organization.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said earlier during his visit to Tajikistan that his country applied for the SCO membership to its secretariat. The SCO secretariat has so far made no comments on the issue.
MINSK. March 26 (Interfax-AVN) - The MiG-29 fighter-jets in service with the Belarusian Air Force will undergo modernization, country's Defense Ministry press service told Interfax-AVN.
"The upgrade of MiG-29s will continue in the near future. This step will help improve combat capabilities of the aircraft by enhancing the range of weapons it can use," the press service said quoting Maj. Gen. Mikhail Levitsky, the Belarusian Air Force and Air Defense Force commander, as saying.
Furthermore, there are plans to buy advanced multirole aircraft after 2010, the press service added.
ASTANA. March 26 (Interfax-AVN) - A court has found the Kazakh president's former son-in-law Rakhat Aliyev and former National Security Committee chief Alnur Musayev guilty of planning a coup and sentenced them to 20 years in prison in absentia, an official from the Kazakh Prosecutor General's Office said at a news briefing on Wednesday.
It was reported earlier that the trial of Aliyev, Musayev and other people, which had been taking place at the military court of the Akmola garrison since January 23, was closed to public to prevent the disclosure of classified information released during the proceedings.
ASTANA. March 26 (Interfax-AVN) - Kazakh president's former son-in-law Rakhat Aliyev and former National Security Committee chief Alnur Musayev, whom a court on Wednesday found guilty of leading an organized criminal group planning a coup in Kazakhstan, had been planning such a coup for years, Prosecutor General's Office spokesman Saparbek Nurpeisov said.
Aliyev and Musayev "set up an organized criminal group under the guise of a special presidential guard unit and coordinated its unlawful activities from 1996 to May 2007," Nurpeisov said at a news briefing in Astana, commenting on the judicial proceedings, which were completed at the Akmola military garrison court earlier on Wednesday.
"The court discovered that, in implementing their criminal design to violently seize power, Aliyev and Musayev trained a special group comprising fighters personally loyal to them," he said.
"The fighters were trained in Israel and Egypt at Aliyev's expense," Nurpeisov said. "The fighters were formally employed as officers of the National Security Committee, the presidential security guard service, and the financial police, and they received salaries there accordingly to their rank," Nurpeisov said.
To physically eliminate certain high-ranking government officials, Aliyev and Musayev organized the manufacturing of deadly poisons and radioactive isotopes, he said.
KYIV. March 26 (Interfax-AVN) - Ukrainian Justice Minister Mikola Onishchuk said at the consultations at the NATO headquarters in Brussels that he hoped for a positive decision at the Bucharest summit allowing Ukraine to join the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP).
High-level consultations were held yesterday as part of the renewed intensive dialogue between NATO and Ukraine concerning its membership and relevant reforms, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson said on Wednesday.
At the consultations, the Ukrainian justice minister briefed NATO officials on the course of constitutional reform and discussed the most important issues concerning the cooperation between the parties in the legal field.
In his speech at a NATO Political Committee session Onishchuk said that the Ukrainian government led by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is committed to Euro-Atlantic integration and to enhance relations with the Alliance and expects the go-ahead at the Bucharest summit, as was said by the Ukrainian president and prime minister in their letter to the NATO Secretary General.
ASTANA. March 26 (Interfax-AVN) - The Kazakh Interior Ministry's investigators are investigating the illegal production and sale of firearms. Several theories are being considered, including involvement of managers from the Metallist weapons plant in Uralsk, in the Western Kazakhstan region.
"Facts pointing to the illegal production of firearms have been uncovered in the country's only weapons plant, Metallist in Uralsk. We are checking now if the management could be involved," Beket Aimaganbetov, the deputy head of the Interior Ministry's Criminal Police Committee, said at a press briefing in Astana on Wednesday.
Earlier reports said, citing the Interior Ministry's press service, that the regional law enforcement services in conjunction with colleagues in Saratov region crushed an international channel of making and selling firearms.
Several suspects were detained in Uralsk and Saratov after an arsenal of pistols with silencers, sniper rifles and ammunition and machine tools, components and blueprints for making firearms, as well as seals of law enforcement services operating in Russian regions bordering on Kazakhstan, were seized from them.
At Metallist, illicit firearms were made by a worker, Aimaganbetov said. "The weapons were made by a high-skilled polisher. The management could have been unaware of this, because the worker had a separate room at his disposal with restricted access," Aimaganbetov said.
The firearms made would be taken out of the plant secretly, in parts, and assembled in a garage. Then the ready-made firearms would be taken to Saratov region with false accompanying documents, Aimaganbetov said .
TBILISI. March 27 (Interfax-AVN) - If Tbilisi is not granted a path toward NATO membership at the Bucharest summit, the country will find it more difficult to resolve its conflicts, said Georgian Foreign Minister David Bakradze.
"If Georgia is not given the status of a NATO candidate at the Bucharest summit, that will be the wrong signal to send to the forces supporting separatists, as it will mean in fact that their destructive policy is working, and this will considerably diminish our chances of resolving the conflicts," Bakradze told journalists after a meeting with the NATO secretary general in Brussels.
This status can be the only guarantee of a peaceful resolution of the Georgian conflicts, he said.
"More skeptical countries raise two issues about Georgia - unresolved conflicts and Russia's stance. However, we believe that the only way to resolve these problems is through granting Georgia the status of a NATO candidate," Bakradze said.
TBILISI. March 27 (Interfax-AVN) - The Council of Europe has reportedly given up hope that the upcoming Georgian parliamentary election will be fair and democratic, one of the leaders of the opposition Republican Party Levan Berdzenishvili told journalists on Wednesday after a meeting with Matyas Eorsi, the head of the CoE monitoring mission in Georgia.
"Representatives of the Council of Europe were rather skeptical about the Georgian authorities at the meeting with the opposition. Their general evaluation was as follows: they do not expect much democracy at the May parliamentary elections in Georgia," Berdzenishvili said.
The opposition provided information on the political situation in Georgia, noting that the authorities have "refused to make any compromises that could pave the way for a fair election," he said.
MINSK. March 27 (Interfax-AVN) - The Moskovsky District Court in Minsk sentenced Semyon Pechenko, a journalist for the Belarusian opposition newspaper Nasha Niva, to 15 days in jail.
A police officer named Zapechenko testified as a witness in Pechenko's case. He and another police officer testified that the journalist shouted the words "Shame!" and "Long live Belarus!" in Belarusian during an unauthorized demonstration in Minsk on March 25.
His colleague Andrei Lenkevich, a photo correspondent for the Nasha Niva newspaper, is due to appear at the Zavodskoi District Court.
Among those convicted is a catholic priest, Father Yury from the Vitebsk diocese, human rights activists said. He was fined 30 basic units (1 basic unit equals 35,000 Belarusian rubles, or 385 Russian rubles).
Over all, more than 20 administrative cases have been heard in relation to the demonstration. In more than half of the cases, judges have imposed fines ranging between 15 and 30 basic units, and in almost half of the cases administrative arrests of three up to fifteen days have been imposed.
During the crackdown on opposition demonstrators in Minsk on March 25, two police officers sustained injuries and were hospitalized. More than 100 demonstrators were detained.
KYIV. March 27 (Interfax-AVN) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has urged all political forces in his country to end speculation over the presence of Ukrainian peacekeepers in Kosovo.
"I want all political forces to end speculation over Ukrainian peacekeepers' presence in Kosovo," Yushchenko said at a ceremony marking Interior Troops Day in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The Ukrainian peacekeepers in Kosovo help raise the profile of the Ukrainian state, he said.
"One must remember that this mission is important for our sate and for our own security," the president also said.
"Ukraine's international position was and remains active," he added.
One Ukrainian peacekeeper was killed and 20 others were injured in unrest in Kosovo. The Ukrainian opposition has demanded that the Ukrainian police contingent be withdrawn from Kosovo.
TASHKENT. March 27 (Interfax-AVN) - The Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Regional Anti-Terrorist Center has signed two cooperation documents in Tashkent.
SCO governments have agreed to jointly fight the illegal circulation of armaments, ammunition and explosives and train personnel for national anti-terrorist units.
The Chinese delegation initiated debates on security at the Beijing Olympic Games.
The SCO is made up of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Mongolia, Iran, India and Pakistan have the observer status.
KYIV. March 27 (Interfax) - Ukraine expects a positive response to its request to join the NATO Membership Action Plan, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko told diplomats in Kyiv on Thursday.
She reminded them that the Ukrainian president, premier and speaker have sent a letter to the NATO secretary general asking for affiliation to the Membership Action Plan.
"We have sent the letter and expect the Bucharest summit to give a positive answer," Tymoshenko said.
TBILISI. March 27 (Interfax-AVN) - Georgian Defense Minister David Kezerashvili believes Georgia will be admitted into NATO's Membership Action Plan (MAP) at the NATO summit in Bucharest.
"No matter how loud some might scream, Georgia will make sure in a week that the 26 countries make the right decision on Georgia's integration into NATO," Kezerashvili told journalists following a meeting with Lithuanian Defense Minister Juozas Olekas in Tbilisi on Thursday.
Georgia's accession to the MAP was among the key issues at the meeting, he said.
"I am sure that Georgia's friends, including Lithuania, will help both us and Ukraine to join the Membership Action Plan in Bucharest," he said.
MOSCOW. March 27 (Interfax) - Russia and Tajikistan will step up trade and economic cooperation, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a press conference following negotiations with his Tajik counterpart Hamrohon Zarifi on Thursday.
"We have agreed on a quick solution to several problems to boost trade, economic cooperation and