Kazakhstan Comments on Russian Missile Tests on its Territory

Kazakhstan's Ministry of Defense has confirmed that Russia tests its missiles inside of Kazakhstan's borders. The country's deputy minister of defense Shaykh-Khasan Zhazykbayev has gone on record to say that in Kazakhstan there is a military test range called Saryshagan, where the 110th training center of the Russian Federation does indeed conduct missile tests. Zhazykbayev noted that Russia has a treaty dating back to 1993, according to which it has the right to use this land as a testing ground. "Missiles of up to 200 kilometers' range are tested there. There is no infrastructure and population [on] this range, so no one suffers," said Zhazykbayev. The deputy minister also noted that Russia conducts only 50 hours of missile testing at Saryshagan each year. The Saryshagan military training range in Kazakhstan is located in the Karaganda and Zhambyl regions, to the northwest and west of Lake Balkhash in the Betpak-Dala steppe. Its construction began in 1956, and its area now holds an active military airfield and several abandoned dirt airfields. The Yekaterinburg to Almaty highway runs through it. Presently it's considered to be the first and the only military range in Eurasia where missile weapons are developed and tested.