Russia says its pulling out of the International Space Station over sanctions meant to punish the country for Vladimir Putin's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg reports, citing state media outlets Tass and RIA Novosti.
What he's saying: “The decision has been taken already, we’re not obliged to talk about it publicly,” said general director Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, per state media.
- “I can say this only — in accordance with our obligations, we’ll inform our partners about the end of our work on the ISS with a year’s notice.”
Rogozin has threatened on multiple occasions to pull out of the space station and let it fall back to Earth in an uncontrolled deorbit in protest of sanctions on Russia, Axios' Jacob Knutson reports.
- NASA had said last month Russia was committed to the ISS, despite threats from Rogozin that it would end cooperation on the station.
The big picture: Before Russia's invasion, the space station had been one of the rare areas of cooperation between the U.S. and Russia despite the increasingly hostile relationship that had developed between the two countries.
