Chukotka Autonomous Okrug

Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (Russian: Чуко́тский автоно́мный о́круг, tr.: Chukotsky avtonomny okrug; Chukchi: Чукоткакэн автономныкэн округ, tr: Chukotkaken avtonomnyken okrug), or Chukotka (Чуко́тка), is a federal subject of Russia (an autonomous okrug) located in the Far Eastern Federal District.

Chukotka has an area of 737,700 km2 (284,800 sq mi) and a population of 53,824 according to the 2002 Census. The principal town and administrative center is Anadyr. It is the most northeasterly region of Russia and, since the sale of Alaska to the United States, has been the only part of Russia lying partially in the Western Hemisphere (east of the 180th meridian).

Lake El'gygytgyn, an important site for scientific research on climate change, is located in Chukotka, as is the village of Uelen, the closest substantial Russian settlement to the United States.

SOURCE: Wikipedia Chukotka Autonomous Okrug

UPDATE:

Zaliv Kresta Airstrip
Alternate names: Krest Bay, Egvekinot (US)
Location: , RU
Coordinates: 66°21.5'N 179°06.4'E   Google TerraServer Multimap GeoURL
Elevation: 6 m (20 ft)
ICAO:UHME
Runway:1350 m (4429 ft) (DIRT)
Military units:Civilian

Small civilian airstrip. 

SOURCE: Russian Airfileds - Note: Site was shut down Nov 2007. The information came from the Internet Archive last active page Oct 13, 2007 - [Archived] Brought to our attention by zaarin from ATS

UPDATE: The Mystery Deepens

In November 2007 the Russian Airfield website was shut down. Screen captures below from the Internet Archive from the last active page show some really interesting facts

Now following the links to the previously linked maps, we find all four sites do not have the images;

• Russian Airfield Master List - [PDF][Archived]
• Russian Airfields - from Wayback Machine dates 2005 - [Archived]
• A blurred/blacked out area in Chukotka - ATS Discussion Thread
• Secret Cities of the Soviet Union
• Chukotavia Airlines - ChukotAVIA (Russian: ЧукотАВИА, short for Чукотские авиалинии (Chukotka Airlines)) is an airline based in Anadyr, Russia. It operates passenger, cargo, and utility services. Its main base is Anadyr Ugolny Airport. The airline was established and started operations in 1996. It was formed by the merger of Anadyr and Chaunski Air Enterprises. It is owned by Anadyr Air Enterprise, Keperveyem Air Enterprise, Mys Shmidta Air Enterprise and Pevek Air Enterprise. (See image here)
• Admiralty Notices to Mariners Oct 6, 2005 - Lists light at Zaliv Kresta - [PDF]
• Ilyushin Il-12 Soviet Transport -- not known Il-14 AFL/Magadan-A++nadyr w/o 01sep69 on approach to Zaliv Kresta (Chukotka) when entered the wrong creek valley (which ended in a culde-sac) and crashed into Mt. Dumka near Zaliv Kresta airport, all crew and passengers killed - [PDF][Archived]
• Mi-4A 06 173 CCCP-02322 AFL/Magadan - sep06 preserved at Zaliv Kresta - Scramble Magazine- [PDF]
• Mi-8 from Chukotka across Bering Strait - to Alaska targets new tourism options
• Roman Abramovich's Chukotka project - Zygmunt Dzieciolowski, 13 September 2006
• Soviet Chukotka
• RussiaAutonomous district of Chukotka - photos by Sergei PL

Egvekinot Settlement - This is the only city near the Russian Launch site

Originally posted by zaarin a member of ATS Post ID 7526236

The name of the airbase was Zaliv Kresta, named after the nearby "Krest Bay".  I have carefully studied the evidence and I conclude that SOMEBODY is going to great lengths to hide the existence of this area.

I discovered from russianairfields.com that there is an air base in the area at;
66° 16' 0" N, 179° 15' 0" E
Zaliv Kresta - Krest Bay
Runway 1350x60m 179-359 T

There is a tiny runway there that basically goes north-south, about 1.3km long. Long enough for propellor planes, maybe learjets. The Russians claim this air base had been bought by the Americans. 

Zaliv Kresta (US) it says.

It doesn't surprise me, the Russians practically advertise their ICBM capability so nobody messes with them, whereas the American Jews are all a bunch of paranoid sketchy twats who dont like anyone to know anything about them.

I agree that Chelsea's Football Manager Roman Abramovich is probably involved seeing as he is the governor of the whole of Chukotka. Also, the Russian government is skint, they can't afford to pay off Google etc to hide ICBM missiles but they can make it nigh on impossible to see what is going on in this area.

It seems this area has been shrouded for quite some time, whilst I don't doubt that a 1.3km runway existed there years ago, I strongly suspect that this tiny airstrip has been developed and built upon and they do not want anybody to know about what is going on there.

The Americans are behind all of this, I am sure of it. That base makes an excellent strategic point against North Korea. I think the base is a CIA extraordinary rendition drop-off/refuel base.

The only other way anybody could get an image of this place is by paying a private satellite company to take a snap during the next flyby.

Those are my thoughts.

UPDATE:
From Google Earth Censoring notes
[*]Russia:
---- Chukotskiy censored by blurring, noted 23 July 2005 and 18 February 2006. Instead of blurring, Microsoft's Virtual Earth copied a nearby image and placed it on the area, which we show. Reasons unknown

SOURCE: GE 330444

Originally posted by Saribous a member at ATS Post ID 7647361

The image you're referring to seems to have been tampered with. It looks (to me at least) like someone has pasted another area over the real one. You can see the "seams" along the edges. You can see the place they copied and put over the original on this screenshot I took (from Bing Maps)

Originally posted by sensible thought a member at ATS Post ID 7654200

I have found a few cut and pasties myself. Has anyone ever seen a place that has been blocked out by EVERY mapping site before? 

Originally posted by freakyclown a member at ATS Post ID 7749935

Right I did some work on tracking down who provided the original data to places like google of the blurred out area, I then sent them a direct email asking for an explination - Today I received a reply...

fc,

Thank you for your TruEarth imagery inquiry. I looked into your question regarding the strange fuzzy spot that you identified in the Google Maps imagery and, yes, I have an explanation. This data looks like it did come from our TruEarth dataset that Google uses as it's global mid-resolution basemap. When examining our source data, sure enough, there is a large data drop out at the same location (see attached). In our source data, it is simply a black wedge which is indicative of a sensor dropout in the original satellite data download. It looks like Google may have patched the black missing data with the fuzzy green patch that you saw.

Thanks again for your inquiry. If you have any other questions, please let me know.

Best regards,  Greg Baxes
----------------------------------------
Greg Baxes
TerraMetrics, Inc.
8420 S. Continental Divide Rd., Ste. 110
Littleton, CO  80127-4251  USA

(He had attached the [above] image to the email - this does show that google added the green/brown blur and that MS used the same data for their images - however is it really a data drop that ALL the mappers have used/duplicated and fuzzed over... or is it blackout for a reason? you decide!)
 

Excerpt 1
In 1942 the Fairbanks — Krasnoyarsk airway was organized to transport airplanes received from the US under the land-lease program. In the Chukotka region this airway ran through Uelkal — Markovo where due to heroic hard work of the natives airdromes were constructed in just a few months.
Red yarangas collected funds and facilities for military needs. Inhabitants brought deer, polar-fox skins, fur-gloves, money and bonds to this Defense Fund. Chukotka inhabitants, namely: the Chukchi, Eskimos and Russians were also among those who fought at the war fronts to defend the country from Germans.

Excerpt 2
During the «Cold war», since 1945, military troops were based in the region. The centre of the Soviet armed forces in Chukotka was the Bay of Providenie. The number of frontier posts also increased.
In 1947 a detachment of civil aviation was created in Chukotka. Two Chukotka ports — Peveksky and Providensky — were operating intensely.

Excerpt 3
During the war geologists found that the Chukotka region had ultimate reserves of gold, tin deposits and some other metals. Industrial exploitation of coal deposits began.
Industrial gold-mining started in 1958. This was the beginning of gold-mining industry formation.
The main part of gold-mines, settlements, industrial enterprises, power plants, power transmission lines, roads, etc. appeared and was built in the region in 1960s, when its population exceeded the figure of 100 thousand people

Bilibinskaya nuclear power plant, Chaunskaya thermal power plant and Ekvekinotskaya hydroelectric power plant produced abundant amounts of energy. Production of construction materials was developping in Anadyr, Pevek and Bilibino.

SOURCE: Soviet Chukotka
 

Outside Anadyr the land still needs a major clean-up. Even the most remote settlements are scarred by piles of abandoned rusty fuel-barrels. The deserted, windowless military camp in Providenie reminds me of the Chechen capital, Grozny, after heavy shelling. The forsaken communications installations on Mount Beklemesheva look like the set of a science-fiction film about a mysterious civilisation that perished in unknown circumstances.

There are other obstacles to developing ecotourism in the region. Every time the helicopter lands, uniformed border-patrol officers check our documents. According to federal regulations Chukotka is a restricted zone for visitors. An entry permit takes forty-five days to organise. The unpredictable weather can ruin any trip, a gamble made worse by the limited working hours of airports and air-traffic control services.

SOURCE: opendemocracy.net

Gudym military site 800km from US border. There have been heavy military machinery on the parking (west), planned to be used for invasion of Alaska. This invasion should be the second step, after a nuclear strike. The nuclear shelter is placed inside of the south mountain (entrance south east). source:"Geheimes Russland - 4v6 - Tschukotka - Die vergessene Armee" documentation.  - SOURCE