Sometimes people appear to forget this during talk about handing them out.
The bet is that Russia's economy is so much smaller now in relation to the other economic giants, as compared to the cold war days, that the ability for the US and EU to hurt Russia is greater than Russia's ability to cause damage back the other way, by a substantial factor.
The US economy by itself is eight times the size of Russia's. Europe has four economies as big as Russia's. Canada and Australia now have economies nearly on par with Russia's.
Russia only has one real trick up its sleeve, and that's natural gas. They can act on that, but it'll cripple their own domestic economy and send the oligarchs into a fit, which risks Putin's power.
For emphasis:
US + UK + Germany + Italy + Spain + France + Canada + Australia = $32 trillion in GDP give or take. Russia = $2 trillion. It's obvious who will win a battle of sanctions. Not to mention the ruble can fairly easily be crushed by the dollar hegemony.
I'm just saying don't forget the cost. And incidentally, I'm not entirely convinced that paper wealth trumps natural resources in today's world.
Also, I wouldn't count on Russia having only "one trick up it's sleeve".
It also makes Russia look like a petulant child, taking its ball and going home because it didn't get to eat another child's chocolate.
"He also said Russia would reject a U.S. request to prolong the use of the International Space Station beyond 2020."
As a person who has only very recently discovered how intriguing the ISS can be, I had been hoping the Ukraine issue wouldn't affect the ISS. It's too bad, but then again, space is large and there are more players than just the U.S. and Russia. There is Japan and a large European (w/o Russia) contingent.
No more military technology exports. End of story, save your 'motherland' comments.
Fucking hell. No wonder this world ain't worth saving.
But the underlying reason why something is fascinating -- because it is connected with power -- doesn't change. So it is hypocritical to claim that "I want this and that, and my intention are innocent and sincere" when the object of your desire is a helicopter gunship. Now, something flying at 7.8 km per second is potentially far more dangerous than a helicopter gunship.
In other words, wanting space exploration to be free of politics is essentially wanting power to be free of politics. Which is a bit oxymoronic. As soon as your exploration produces something interesting, be it knowledge, materials, or even location, someone else is going to want it for themselves.
Though, reliability and espionage-possibility would remain a concern.
