Juniper Networks, a US-based manufacturer of telecom equipment, is considering setting up its own R&D center in Tatarstan, portal Venture Business News reports, citing a source in Tatarstan’s Ministry of Information and Communications.

Such a center could be purportedly opened at Kazan’s IT-Park.

The project calls for setting up an innovation satellite town 35km outside Tatarstan’s capital city of Kazan on a 1,200ha area. The entire infrastructure for coordinating IT companies in IT projects and training skilled personnel is envisioned to be there.

Singapore’s RSP Architect is said to be developing a master plan for construction based on a “live, study, work, relax” principle.

Juniper Networks regards as Kazan’s strength the fact that Tatarstan’s IT sector is being developed the way Juniper recommends the rest of the world to develop: IT centers should be large, have high-speed communications, and be transformable enough to develop innovative applications to order from other regional economic sectors.

If the Juniper Networks management ultimately chooses Tatarstan, the Kazan R&D center will be the firm’s first Russian-based program of this kind.

As of today, Juniper holds two of such centers back home (in California and Boston, MA), one in India’s Bangalore, and one in China’s Beijing.