The Intersputnik international space communication organization and the Alfa Eco Russian company will pool efforts to launch communication satellites and develop the telecom system of Iraq, a source close to the Russian Aerospace Agency told Interfax on Thursday.
“Iraq has voiced interest in launching a small communication satellite, alomg with restoring the television broadcasting system and reconstructing ground stations and aerials to be connected to the international telephone system in Russia,” he said.
Meanwhile the sides do not plan to restore the military telecom systems of Iraq, he stressed. “It is hard to assess the cost of the projects, but each of the similar ventures costs hundreds of millions of dollars,” the source said.
Alfa Eco “has basically agreed to start a preliminary analysis of a financial engineering project for the development of Iraq telecom. Now we need interstate accords to progress,” the source said.
A high-ranking Alfa Eco representative has told Interfax that his company is making a preliminary evaluation of the project. The Russian company will take into account the political realities in the situation around Iraq, he noted.
“We are ready to work and we have formulas of financing such projects in compliance with the sanctions. But, naturally, we are also ready to offer other models,” the representative said.
“In fact, the restoration of telephone communication and the possibility to broadcast Russian TV programs can hardly be regarded as propaganda. These are purely humanitarian projects,” he stressed.
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