MOSCOW – In a series of tweets posted early Saturday morning, the man in charge of Russian space agency Roscosmos said the country’s cooperation with other nations aboard the International Space Station will not be restored unless “illegal sanctions” from the U.S., Canada, European Union and Japan on Russia are lifted.
Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said his request to these nations for the removal of sanctions impacting Russia’s rocket and space industry have received “carbon-copied” responses that promised only to “promote further cooperation within the ISS and its operation,” an operation in which he said Russia plays a role so vital that “the ISS will die by its own death” by the time the 28 EU countries even “deign to read” Roscosmos’ letter.
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Rogozin said sanctions aimed at blocking Russia’s financial, economic and production activities were designed to “kill the Russian economy, plunge our people into despair and hunger, and bring our country to its knees.” While he went on to say that the sanctions will be unable to do that, Rogozin called then for the “complete and unconditional lifting” of the sanctions as the only possible way to restore normal relations among countries operating the space station.
At the time of this report, neither NASA nor Administrator Bill Nelson have issued a public response to the new development.
Read Rogozin’s Twitter thread — translated to English and compiled — below:
The head of NASA, Senator Nelson, the head of the European Space Agency, Josef Aschbacher, and the head of the Canadian Space Agency, Lisa Campbell, responded to my appeal to them demanding the lifting of sanctions against a number of enterprises in the Russian rocket and space industry.
The American and Canadian responses are almost carbon-copied.
In particular, Bill Nelson's letter states that "NASA will continue to engage with relevant federal and US agencies to promote further cooperation within the ISS and its operation, including any necessary cooperation under the ISS program with the support of JSC "Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering" (JSC "TsNIIMash") and JSC "RCC" Progress." Maintaining safe and successful ISS operations remains a priority for the US."
With regard to the response of the European Space Agency, Josef Aschbacher acted as a postman, confirming that he does not solve such issues, and therefore forwarded my appeal to the EU member states.
That is, we are invited to wait until the bureaucracies of all 28 EU countries deign to read the letter of Roskosmos. By this time, either the donkey will die, or the ISS will die by its own death. Nevertheless, the position of our partners is clear: the sanctions will not be lifted.
At the same time, fearing the destruction of cooperation on the ISS, where the role of Russia is of fundamental importance to ensure the viability and safety of the station, Western partners make it clear that in reality, sanctions in terms of work in the interests of the ISS will not work. I consider this state of affairs unacceptable.
Sanctions from the US, Canada, the European Union and Japan are aimed at blocking financial, economic and production activities of our high-tech enterprises.
The purpose of the sanctions is to kill the Russian economy, plunge our people into despair and hunger, and bring our country to its knees. It is clear that they will not be able to do this, but the intentions are clear.
That's why I believe that the restoration of normal relations between partners in the International Space Station and other joint projects is possible only with the complete and unconditional lifting of illegal sanctions.
Specific proposals of Roskosmos on the timing of the completion of cooperation within the ISS with the space agencies of the United States, Canada, the European Union and Japan will be reported to the leadership of our country in the near future.
Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin