Roscosmos head Yuri Borisov says Russia's exit from ISS has nothing to do with politics

Just a couple of days after confirming Russia’s exit from the International Space Station (ISS) after 2024, Roscosmos Director-General Yuri Borisov claimed that the decision has nothing to do with politics. Citing his statement during a live TV interview with Rossiya-24, TASS News reported Borisov saying that matters like international space cooperation must be kept away from politics. 

"It gave all the participants in the project new knowledge and united us to some extent", Borisov said pointing out that the ISS served as a platform of global partnership for decades. "I believe that these projects must be outside politics both today and in the future". Earlier on July 26, Borisov, during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that Roscosmos will fulfill its obligations to other partners at the ISS and that the decision to exit the outpost after 2024 has been made. 

In his recent interview, he revealed that Roscosmos' process of withdrawal will begin after 2024 and that its exit will depend on the condition of the station. On the other hand, Vladimir Solovyov, the general designer for Russian manned systems and the general designer of RSC Energia, hinted that Russia's departure could take as long as 2028 when Roscosmos completes the construction of the Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS). 

The geopolitics behind Russia's boycott of the ISS

Although Borisov claimed Russia's boycott of ISS is free from politics, his predecessor's statements over the same paint a different picture. Dmitry Rogozin, who was replaced by Borisov earlier this month, was the first to threaten about leaving the ISS in response to the economic sanctions imposed on Russia for attacking Ukraine. Rogozin had even laid a condition to stay demanding that the sanctions be revoked or let the station crash into Earth.

Ever since the war broke out on February 24, the western faction backing Ukraine has imposed heavy sanctions on the shipment of goods and technologies to Russia. Several space agencies such as the ESA, Japan and the German Space Agency have also suspended several space missions they had planned with Russia.

Another instance of politics in space was Roscosmos' recent move of posting pictures of three cosmonauts posing with the flags of Donetsk and Luhansk from the Donbas region of Ukraine. The pictures drew heavy criticism from the international community with NASA astronaut Terry Virts saying that he was 'extremely disappointed".