Sanctions won't harm Russia's space industry, we'll partner up with China: Roscosmos chief

Downplaying the severity of Western sanctions, Russian space agency Roscosmos's Director-General Dmitry Rogozin confidently said that they won't significantly harm Russia's space initiatives. In an interview with Russia's First Channel, the former Deputy Prime Minister said that Roscosmos' main focus is on the interests of its country. He also said that the projects are just too many and too huge to be affected by sanctions and they won't stop Russia's work on the International Space Station (ISS) or other programs.

"Half of our work is related to providing the Ministry of Defense with the necessary orbital grouping and, of course, strategic intercontinental ballistic missiles. This is the basis of our nuclear missile shield", Rogozin told First Channel. He also listed a number of "purely civilian tasks" such as navigation, digital, space television, and space communications and observation from space stating that these are beyond the reach of western sanctions. Further undermining the economic restrictions imposed on Russia for invading Ukraine, Rogozin said that "we are going to restructure the accents." Last month, US President Joe Biden had announced severe sanctions on Russia's access to cutting-edge technology stating that it would ultimately destroy Moscow's space programs.

On April 7, Roscosmos conducted its third successful mission from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region. In a Twitter post, Rogozin informed that the launch was conducted using the Soyuz 2.1b rocket to deliver a satellite to assist Russia's Defense Ministry. This was the second mission to launch a military satellite after the delivery of the Meridian-M communications satellite on March 22.

'Will develop relations with leading space powers like China': Rogozin

While the US along with several European countries were mounting sanctions on Russia, many analysts said that this has pushed Moscow into China's camp. Confirming the same, Rogozin said that Russia would now develop relations with countries that do not incline towards the west and support its sanctions. According to First Channel, he said that there are a huge number of such states, some of which are leading space powers such as China. 

So far, Roscosmos has foiled its relations with almost every major space agency including the US' NASA, and the European Space Agency (ESA). In addition to this, the German Space Agency (DLR) had also announced to suspend all operations with Russia over its unprovoked attack on Ukraine. It all began when Roscosmos removed the flags of the US, the UK and Japan from its rocket while leaving the Indian flag intact. There's a possibility that Russia would also offer its partnership to India's ISRO considering its extremely controversial gesture.

Image: Twitter/@Rogozin/AP