According to Koptev, some $1 billion was invested into the development of Baikonur Cosmodrome from non-budgetary sources during the past ten years.
At the same time, control over Baikonur has gradually shifted from military to civilian managers.
"Eighty percent of the cosmodrome infrastructure is supported by civil space industry," Koptev said, an important distinction given the important role the launch site has in sending commercial communication satellites into geostationary orbit.
Last year 70 percent of the estimated $8 billion world revenue generated by commercial launches came from launches to geostationary orbit.
Russia is currently discussing with Kazakhstan, the former Soviet republic where the cosmodrome is located, the possibility of extending the Baikonur rent from 25 to 50 years.
Satellite constellations are expected to rise
Meanwhile, Russia's constellation of communication satellites is slowly being restored. Such restoration is also mostly supported by non-budgetary sources. "Over the last few years Russian communication satellites constellation has been supported mostly by the money earned by [the state and private] communication service providers," said Koptev.
"We have an agreement with the Ministry of Communication to build seven communication satellites over the next three years," Koptev said. "So, in other words, we will not only completely restore Russian constellation of communication satellites, but will also increase its efficiency by three times. This boosted communication satellites network will serve not only Russian but also foreign customers."
The State Enterprise for Satellite Communication (GPKS), a company which currently controls up to 1.6 percent of the world's satellite communication network, has announced its plan to invest $120 million into the development of its satellite constellation. This money will be obtained by GKPS via commercial activity.
"We try to restore the same way [through commercial activity] Earth Observation Satellites," said Koptev. "Some satellites that were built for purely military purposes are now successfully used for civil, commercial purposes."
The situation with navigational satellites is expected to improve in the coming years as well.
"The Russian federal budget envisages 1 billion rubles for the development of GLONASS system," Koptev said, making it clear that private capital also will be actively attracted to the development of GLONASS.
A problem remains with meteorological satellites: "Russia currently operates only three of them but they are running out of their operational lifetime," Koptev said.
According to Koptev, the guaranteed operational lifetime of 70 percent of Russian satellites has already expired, but that number can be misinterpreted.
"A manufacturer [in the Soviet Union] always gave certain guarantee on its piece of hardware," said Koptev. "If anything happened to this piece while it was still covered by the manufacturer's warranty, the manufacturer was supposed either to replace it by a similar piece or to pay to the customer a full cost of this piece plus a fine."
Such policy encouraged the satellite manufacturers to cover their pieces by a period of warranty that was a few times less than the satellite's real length of service. For example, Gorizont satellites had a three years of manufacturer's warranty but they were operated for up to nine years.
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