YALTA, November 20 (RIA Novosti) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has offered Russia her country's participation in the ambitious Glonass global positioning project.
Glonass - the Global Navigation Satellite System - is the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Global Positioning System, or GPS, and is designed for both military and civilian use. Both systems allow users to determine their positions to within a few meters.
"We have agreed that the Glonass system would be more efficient if Ukraine became an intrinsic part of this project. Ukraine has all resources necessary for this," Tymoshenko said after talks with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday.
The 18 satellites the Glonass system requires for continuous navigation services covering the entire territory of the Russian Federation are currently in orbit.
Another six satellites still have to be launched to bring numbers up to the 24 needed to provide services worldwide.
A total of 9.9 billion rubles ($360 million at the current exchange rate) was allocated for Glonass from the federal budget in 2007, and 4.7 billion rubles ($170 million) in 2006.
Putin signed an order on September 12, 2008, providing an additional $2.6 billion to develop the system.
