Deputy Prime Ministry Dmitry Rogozin has threatened to deactivate all GPS infrastructure operating on Russian soil if the U.S. does not agree to allow Russia to place Glonass stations in US. Rogozin, who heads the country’s defense industry, said Russia will temporarily switch off 11 GPS stations on June 1. He said Russia will permanently close GPS stations from Sept. 1 if no solution is found with Washington.

The Russian Federal Space Agency – Roscosmos – appealed to the US authorities for permission to build several measuring stations for the GLONASS system in May 2012. Pentagon did not agree for that stating that it could be used to spy on American interests. There may also be commercial reasons for the US to promote its domestic system over the Russian one. 

All the geo geeks know that GPS will not actually stop working in Russia as it’s a satellite based system. We don’t know what Rodozin meant in his statement. There are no GPS control stations on Russian soil. What he might have meant are DGPS stations or RTK reference stations which are used mostly for land surveying purposes. In that case it will create the biggest problems for Russian industry not really American.

Stay tuned. We will report you on all the news.

source: Wall Street Journal