MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has urged the global community to pool efforts to ensure protection of the Earth from asteroid threat. Rogozin also called to start looking for extra-terrestrial civilizations, speaking on Rossiya-24 television.
''As any other resident of the Earth, I am dreaming of finding out whether life exists anywhere else apart from the Earth. This task is of fundamental interest which should be resolved in an international format, rather than by Russia alone," the deouty prime minister said. "I believe the research in this field deserves allocation of the necessary funds," he said.
"The second task of importance is to defend the Earth from the asteroid threat. A meteorite which fell onto the Earth in the area of Chelyabinsk (east of the Urals) in February 2013 has proved that the problem is a subject for serious studies. No one knows what might happen in five-ten years and whether our technological possibilities will be sufficient then to turn an extra-terrestrial body, knowing that it is coming to the Earth, away from our planet, change the trajectory of the hazardous rapprochement," Rogozin said. "This task should be resolved in an international format," he added.