His remarks came after the Russian newspaper Izvestia quoted a source in the military-industrial complex as saying that the Russian Defense Ministry plans to restore and modernize the Dnepr early warning radar station near the city of Sevastopol in Crimea.
Ganzhara, for his part, said that everyone living on the Crimean Peninsula fully supports the idea of upgrading the Dnepr radar, which he said will contribute to Crimea's security.
"To date, Russia has already turned Crimea into an unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Black Sea. But we understand that in terms of a potential threat from NATO countries, Crimea is in need of more control and monitoring," he said.
In this regard, the Dnepr radar station will enable Russia to "close the circle" of security not only in Crimea, but along Russia's borders on the whole, according to Ganzhara.
"The restoration of this radar station will allow our country to completely close the circle of Russia's monitoring and defense line. The restoration of this link in Russia's missile defense system will help fully protect our country against possible threats and challenges," he said.
Regarding Crimea, he said that it plays an important current geopolitical role, and that the modernization of the Dnepr radar is of great importance given Turkey's extremely radical position toward Russia as well as the NATO countries' ever-increasing activity near the Russian borders.
Built in 1968, the facility was transferred to Ukrainian sovereignty after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but it continued to provide data for the Russian military under lease.
In 2009, Russia canceled the deal due to the fact that the Dnepr radar's coverage could be substituted by a new Voronezh radar station in Armavir.
