MOSCOW (Reuters) – A French man and a German man have been arrested for unauthorised entry to the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan that Russia uses for space launches, Russian state media reported on Friday.
RIA news agency quoted a Kazakh prosecutor as saying the pair were detained for one day and then removed from the complex. It said the 21-year-old Frenchman and 26-year-old German were tourists who undertook an “unauthorised walk” around the facility because they wanted to see a Russian Energiya rocket.
In July, two Dutch citizens and a Belgian were arrested while trying to enter Baikonur. The previous month, a French citizen died of dehydration while attempting to walk there.
The cosmodrome, which is leased from Kazakhstan by Russia, is located in a remote desert area and access to it is restricted, although tours are sold for those who want to witness a spacecraft launch.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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