The Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC) established for the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin a space bridge with Sri Lanka via the new Express-AM1 Satellite at 40 degrees E. The chief of the Russian Emergency Ministry‘s airmobile hospital Alexander Ivanyus entered into the direct communication with Moscow from Sri Lanka. He told the President about the humanitarian situation on the island. Vladimir Putin thanked all the doctors and medical personnel for their work.

The organizers of the space bridge were the Russian Emergency Ministry, RSCC and the Pervy Kanal Company. RSCC provided capacity on the modern Express-AM1 communications and broadcasting satellite that was put into operation a day before it, i.e. on the 1^st of February. The establishment of the space bridge became possible thanks to availability of a special shaped antenna on the new satellite providing for a stable communication from Europe with the South Asia’s countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh.

RSCC displayed wide multimedia capabilities of the new Russian spacecraft of Express-AM series. Mobile satellite communications stations operating through RSCC’s modern satellites can be shortly deployed practically under any conditions and used for transmitting reports from scenes of events, for space bridging and videoconferencing.