Russian Official Says New U.S. Space Policy Will Lead to Military Confrontation

Mos News
Dec. 01, 2006

A senior Russian space official sharply criticized an assertive new U.S. space policy signed by President George W. Bush, saying Wednesday that it would increase tension and could lead to military confrontation in space, The Associated Press news agency reports. In the first revision of U.S. space policy in nearly a decade, Bush signed an order earlier this year asserting the United States’ right to deny adversaries access to space for hostile purposes and saying the United States will oppose treaties or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to or use of space.

“This document can be seen today as the first step toward a serious deepening of the military confrontation in space,” the Interfax news agency quoted Vitaly Davydov, deputy head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, as saying.

“Now the Americans are saying that they want not only to go to space but they want to dictate to others who else is allowed to go there,” Davydov said, according to the report.

The order says the United States will “preserve its rights, capabilities, and freedom of action in space; dissuade or deter others from either impeding those rights or developing capabilities intended to do so” and “deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests.”

Davydov criticized what he said were U.S. plans to deploy weapons in space and said that Russia could respond if the United States does so.

The White House has said the policy does not call for the development or deployment of weapons in space.

As the U.S. space policy was being reviewed last year, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov threatened retaliatory steps if any country put weapons in space.

Moscow’s concerns about space-based weapons go back to the Soviet-era space race and U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s 1980s plans for a “Star Wars” missile defense system.

Bush’s order, signed more than two months ago, was not publicly announced.