Enlarge / Russia’s chief of spaceflight, Dmitry Rogozin, is barred by US sanctions from traveling to the United States. (credit: Yuri SmityukTASS via Getty Images)
On Wednesday morning, the sprawling Russian corporation that oversees the country’s space activities, Roscosmos, issued a statement from its general director on Twitter that appeared to speak both to NASA as well as Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“We value highly our professional relations with NASA, but as an (ethnic) Russian and a citizen of Russia I am very unhappy with the openly hostile policy of the USA toward my country,” said the statement by Dmitry Rogozin, who heads Russian space policy and interfaces directly with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
What prompted the statement from Rogozin is not immediately clear. On Monday, he tweeted, “Glory to Russia” following Putin’s speech on Ukraine and Russia’s right to occupy territories of the former Soviet Union. Rogozin is a member of Putin’s inner circle, having previously served as a deputy prime minister in the government before leading Roscosmos.
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