EU citizens detained at Russian-operated space launch site

Two tourists from the EU have been detained after illegally entering the territory of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the prosecutor’s office of Kazakhstan’s Kyzylord Region said on Friday.

The Baikonur Cosmodrome was built in 1955 for the Soviet space program. The facility in southern Kazakhstan has been operated by Russia since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, with a lease running until 2050. The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, performs all its manned launches from the site. It is also used by the Russian Aerospace Forces.

Russian police officers based at the Baikonur Cosmodrome arrested a 21-year-old Frenchman and a 26-year-old German citizen for “an unauthorized stroll” on the territory of the launch site, Kazakh prosecutors told RIA Novosti news agency.

The two men, who were in Kazakhstan as tourists, were on their way to see a Russian Energia heavy space rocket when they were spotted, they said.

On Wednesday, a military garrison court at the Baikonur Cosmodrome found the French and German citizens guilty of trespassing in a guarded area and imposed a 24-hour administrative arrest. The next day, the men were removed from the territory of the launch site, according to the prosecutors.

In June, three European tourists were detained after illegally entering the Baikonur Cosmodrome and ordered to abandon the facility.

A month prior, a French tourist died of dehydration in a steppe area near the territory.