The Kartaly missile base is no more - today the Rocket Forces blew up the last missile silo there. The base has been listed as not operational for some time, so today's explosion will not change the aggregate numbers, but it is still an important event - now Russia has only two heavy-missile bases left - Uzhur and Dombarovsky.

The commander-in-chief of the Rocket Forces also said a few words about the future of the heavy-missile force. The older R-36MUTTH missiles will stay in service until 2007-2010 (it was 2007-2009 in one of his previous announcements), while the newer R-36M2 - until 2014-2016 (this one hasn't changed).