FPI / April 6, 2022
On April 2 the director general of the Russian space corporation Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, continued to play hardball with the United States when he posted on Twitter his latest threat to end cooperation with the United States on the International Space Station (ISS):
“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.”
Earlier, on March 20, he demonstrated what an enormous national security threat is Hunter Biden, the president's son:
“Drug addict, drunkard, lecher, and thief Hunter Biden robbed Ukraine and shared bribes with his father. Now, when all this has been revealed, the father of this bastard is flooding Ukraine with weapons in order to burn in the fire all possible evidence of the corruption of his criminal family. I believe that our law enforcement agencies will be interested.”
As the world is awaiting the decision of Putin on whether Russia "will continue to 'muddle through' the current political crisis caused by his brutal invasion of Ukraine, continuing business as usual on the ISS, or whether he will end cooperation, potentially even sacrifice the ISS in a demonstration of Russian power," Richard Fisher wrote for Geostrategy-Direct.com on April 5.
Little noticed by most Americans, China is engaged in a fierce competition with the United States for control of space as means to leverage power on Earth. Russia, lacking in financial clout, is nonetheless an integral player.
It is "not unrealistic that Putin could opt to increase his capacity for military intimidation by arranging to destroy the International Space Station, turning it into the world’s most expensive 'Molotov Cocktail' to demonstrate to the U.S., Europe and Japan their powerlessness in the face of Putin’s imperial ambitions," Fisher wrote.
In an op-ed for The Epoch Times, Fisher noted that Russia "had no hesitation in using the Hunter Biden scandal — already historic in its brazenness and now perceived as a weakness in that the American system will not resolve it — to accuse the United States of hypocrisy in Ukraine, diminish the Executive Office of the President of the United States, and weaken America’s global leadership."
The Hunter Biden scandal, Fisher added, "has become a national security threat, now used by Russia and, perhaps later, China to justify evil and aggression against America and its allies."
At least two factors argue in favor of Putin deciding to end ISS cooperation and even to facilitate its destruction, Fisher noted for Geostrategy-Direct:
"First, Putin is reaching a point of extreme desperation with his failed war against Ukraine. Fierce resistance by Ukraine has forced his military withdrawal from Northern Ukraine to focus on war in Eastern Ukraine, and it may yet come to his having to use new low yield nuclear weapons.
"But doing so would only hyper elevate his status as international war criminal while raising the specter of a Western nuclear response. Furthermore, Russia is now isolated internationally, and the Europeans are actually working to end his main foreign exchange source, their purchases of Russian petroleum.
"Second, Russia now has an international partner that can in most cases replace the Untied States and Europe: China.
"Inasmuch as both want to use space to end the “hegemony” of the United States on Earth, for Putin, following China for now may not be a bad choice."
Free Press International
