Russia is negotiating with other countries on the possible joint use of Russia's worldwide positioning satellite system Glonass, the head of the Russian Space agency said Tuesday. Glonass, a Russian version of the U.S. Worldwide Positioning system (GPS), is designed for both military and civilian purposes, and allows users to identify their positions in really time. It can be used in geological prospecting. Global Positioning System (GPS), is designed for both military and civilian purposes, and allows users to identify their positions in real time. It can also be used in geological prospecting.

"We are in active talks with India, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and other countries on the joint use of the Glonass space system," Anatoly Perminov said.

"As far as other countries are concerned, we are primarily in talks with the United States and the European Space Agency to prepare agreements on the use of Glonass jointly with GPS and Galileo [satellite navigation systems]," Perimov said.

Hey said Glonass has been in in intensified stage of development since the president urged for active work on the system.

"The country's leadership is paying particular attention to the development of the system," Perminov said. "The Russian president personally set the task of not only actively developing it [the system], but also putting it into operation as soon as possible." [full article]

GLONASS (briefly for global navigation satellite system)
The Russian general staff lifts from the 01st of January, 2007 all restrictions which are valid presently for the exactness of the detection of objects within the scope of the national navigation system GLONASS.
Before the divergence amounted with the regulation of the exact co-ordinates because of the restrictions up to 150 metres. Now the divergence will sway about five metres”, said the deputy of the department for surgical management of the civil defence ministry, Andrej Legoschin, during an interview towards RIA Novosti.

He said that the exact regulation of an object can be vital with bad weather or under complicated geographic conditions on the rescue of human life.

“We want to bomb nobody, however, it is necessary to know the exact scene of the accident or the stay of the victims. This is necessary for the work of the rescue groups on the earth as well as for the airplane management”, he said.

Legoschin informed that the Russian rescue service uses GLONASS the similar American system GPS already for some years except with which these restrictions were already abolished earlier.