The government declassified detailed satellite maps – Proceedings

Photo: REUTERS / Vincent Kessler

Russia has lifted restrictions on public use of detailed space images . Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree “On the public use of remote sensing data from space received from foreign and Russian space commercial vehicles». The text of the decree states that remote sensing data land (ERS) from space, “derived from foreign satellites and Russian space commercial vehicles classified as a state secret and can not be used publicly in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.”

In the explanatory memorandum to the draft resolution, it was stated that it is a lifting of restrictions on the use of public space images with the level of resolution less than 1 m.

As previously wrote “Izvestia”, the lifting of secrecy with high-resolution satellite maps became possible after softening of positions Defense Ministry in this regard. It happened as follows: in the summer of this year, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin ordered the use of high-resolution images on the discussion of the government commission on the use of information technology to improve the quality of life and business environment. The mayor asked why urban services are not able to use in high-precision images of the Earth, despite the fact that Google publishes them in the public domain. Then Dmitry Medvedev as the chairman of the government commission on IT, ordered to establish a working group under the leadership of Sergei Sobyanin and Minister Michael Abyzova, which includes representatives of the Federal Security Service, the Ministry of Defense and other agencies concerned.

Group was able to work out a solution by September this year. Since then, there was a discussion of the draft resolution. Some members of the working group insisted on the mandatory publication of and universal access to images obtained from satellite state. They proposed a formulation ruling: «Remote sensing data from space received from foreign satellites and Russian space commercial vehicles classified as a state secret and can not be opened may be published in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation in the field of protection of intellectual property and exclusive rights and international law ».

But in the end pictures with government satellites decided not to make available to the public – it would cause loss of business of private providers of products based on remote sensing.