© Associated Press
– 60 years after Yuri Gagarin’s first flight, Russia admits Western sanctions are hampering its space program
Russia will leave the International Space Station (ISS) if the United States does not lift sanctions on the space sector, which prevent Moscow from launching satellites and assembling ships.
Roscosmos director Dmitry Rogozin admitted to Russian lawmakers on Monday that the state-owned company was struggling to obtain the imported microchips needed for the space program.
“We have more than enough missiles, but we have nothing to launch them with,” Rogozin said in a rare confession by a senior Russian official that Western sanctions were seriously hampering the development of an industry.
He explained that the spacecraft are almost assembled due to the lack of parts that are banned due to sanctions.
The United States and other Western nations have begun imposing sanctions on Russia since the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The United States recently sanctioned Moscow for meddling in the US election, cyberattacks and poisoning of Kremlin critics Alexei Navalny.
Rogozin, who is under personal sanctions from the United States and the European Union, has admitted that it will be up to the United States to keep Russia on the ISS after 2025.
The ISS is an international project consisting of two segments, Russian and another, used by the United States and other space agencies. The US space agency NASA supports the continued use of the ISS at least until 2030, and its chief, Bill Nelson, told CNN last week that leaving Russia could trigger a new space race with Russia and China.
The European Council president, meanwhile, said Moscow must change its behavior if it wants better relations with the EU. He made the statement after a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
“The downward trend in EU-Russia relations can only change if Russia stops its destructive behavior,” he wrote on Twitter.
The EU and Russia disagree on a wide range of issues, including human rights, Russia’s intervention in Ukraine and Moscow’s attitude toward Navalny, Reuters reports.
A Kremlin statement said Putin also did not consider Russia-EU relations satisfactory, but that Moscow and the EU remained key partners in trade and investment. At the same time, the Russian president told Michelle that possible European sanctions against Belarus would be counterproductive. Brussels is preparing measures over the hijacking of a Ryanair plane and the arrest of journalist Roman Protasevic.
“It was noted that a return to co-operation in a pragmatic and respectful way would be in our mutual interest,” the presidential administration said in a statement.
In March, the EU imposed sanctions on four senior Russian officials close to Putin in response to Navalny’s conviction. Brussels also applies trade restrictions and personal sanctions to the annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine.
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