MOSCOW, December 8 - RAPSI, Natalya Belova. A commercial court upheld the lower court's decision approving the prohibition for ScanEx to photograph the Earth with better spatial resolution than two meters, the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) reported on Thursday.

ScanEx is Russia's leader in satellite data acquisition, processing and distribution.

Therefore, after hearing the appeals by the Federal Space Agency, the defendant, and the Defense Ministry, the third party to the dispute, the federal commercial court overruled the appellate court and dismissed ScanEx' request for removing the prohibition of the company's high-resolution satellite photography from its license.

In November 2010, ScanEx wrote an open letter to Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov asking for the government's position on giving up restrictions on high-resolution Earth photography.

ScanEx reminded that in December 2006 the Defense Minister told the Russian president that limitations regarding satellite images' resolution were removed.