Cold War relic: EU members dwindle in Moscow-based Intersputnik amid new withdrawals

Four EU member states continue to belong to Intersputnik, a little-known international organisation established under the auspices of the Soviet Union and the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) during the Cold War.

The issue resurfaced after Bulgaria joined Czechia, announcing its decision to withdraw from Intersputnik – formally known as the International Organisation of Space Communications. Poland has withdrawn last year.

Founded in 1971 and headquartered in Moscow, Intersputnik currently has 24 member states, most of them former socialist countries. Among them are four current EU members – Bulgaria, Romania, Czechia and Hungary – alongside countries such as Afghanistan, Somalia, North Korea, Belarus, Cuba, Syria, Yemen and Tajikistan.

Headquartered in Moscow and registered with the United Nations, Intersputnik now operates as a commercially oriented entity. It provides global satellite capacity leasing, access to geostationary and non-geostationary orbits, and services like broadband Internet, cellular backhaul, TV distribution, corporate networks, and turnkey solutions through partnerships with operators such as Eutelsat, Intelsat, SES, and RSCC.

Bulgaria’s delayed exit has raised questions domestically, particularly given that as early as 2022, shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow officially designated Bulgaria an “unfriendly” country.

“The government will propose to the National Assembly the denunciation of Bulgaria’s accession agreement, which was ratified in 1972,” the Bulgarian Council of Ministers said in a statement.

The decision is based on “the lack of transparency and guarantees that the organisation’s satellite fleet, which operates on a commercial basis, is not being used against the interests of member states,” the government said.

Although originally established as a non-profit international organisation, Intersputnik today operates in practice as a consortium with the characteristics of an international commercial company. It owns a network of 18 satellites in near-Earth orbit, covering large parts of South America, the Far East, Asia and Africa.

For Europe, around 40 transponders are used, each with a capacity of 36 MHz, according to information published on Intersputnik’s website.

The organisation’s current membership list still includes Ukraine alongside Russia, as well as India, Kazakhstan, North Korea and around a dozen other countries.

“The fundamental basis of Intersputnik’s activities is open, mutually beneficial cooperation with international organisations of the industry, public and governmental institutions, the research community and business entities all over the world,” the organisation states.

One of its declared objectives is to preserve sustainable space as a prerequisite for the further development of the satellite communications industry.

Initially, the Intersputnik system was built on the Soviet Union’s Orbit-2 satellite broadcasting network and was intended to serve member states of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon).

Core system design and technical development were led by Soviet research institutes and industrial plants, with production spread across several facilities in the USSR. In its early phase, the system relied on highly elliptical Molniya-3 satellites before transitioning in 1978 to geostationary Gorizont satellites as part of a broader modernisation effort.

Over time, the system’s ground infrastructure and transmission equipment were upgraded, while development and manufacturing were gradually internationalised. Research institutions and factories in Hungary and Czechoslovakia later joined the programme, reflecting Intersputnik’s expansion beyond a purely Soviet technological framework.

Caption: The Russian Soyuz-2.1a booster rocket carrying the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft blasts off from the Russian-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, 27 November 2025. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV