MOSCOW, November 16. /TASS/. Russia’s Defense Ministry has branded the statements by the US Department of State and the Pentagon as hypocritical when they tried to accuse Russia of creating risks for the International Space Station (ISS), the military agency said on Tuesday.
"The Russian Defense Ministry sees the statements by the Department of State and the Pentagon as hypocritical, which attempted to blame the Russian Federation for creating ‘risks’ for the cosmonauts of the International Space Station and urging to ‘develop universal norms that the global community will use in space exploration’," the military agency stated.
The Defense Ministry noted that for years Russia has been urging the US and other countries to sign a treaty preventing the deployment of weapons in space. "The draft of this treaty was submitted to the UN. However, the US and its allies are blocking its approval. Washington openly declares that it doesn’t want to be bound by any obligations in space," the statement said.
The Russian military agency reiterated that in 2020, the US created the Space Command and officially adopted a new space strategy with "ensuring space superiority" being one of its official goals. "In their turn, the Pentagon both before these official steps and, moreover, afterwards, has been actively developing and testing in orbit without any notifications the newest attack combat means of various types, including the latest modifications of X-37 space drones," the ministry said.
The military agency emphasized that the actions of the American side are viewed as a threat and are incompatible with the stated goals of the peaceful use of space. "Against this background, the Russian Defense Ministry implements planned activities on bolstering defensive capabilities that exclude the possibility of a sudden harm to the country’s security in the sphere of space and on Earth by existing and prospective foreign space means," the statement said.