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This week’s R&D covers recent Russian provocations. Over the past week, Russia has added to global anxieties by testing an anti-satellite weapon – causing the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) to seek cover from space debris – and massing troops on its border with Ukraine. France and Germany warned Russia earlier this week that harming Ukraine’s territorial integrity would met be met with “serious consequences.”
Earlier this week, Russia tested a direct-ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) missile against a satellite target, scattering thousands of pieces of orbital debris and heightening the risk of collisions between objects in space.@nktpnd explains what happened: https://t.co/AWeT1fMl3C
— Carnegie Endowment (@CarnegieEndow) November 18, 2021
Ukraine says Russia is massing as many as 114,000 troops to the north, east, and south of the Donbass, a mostly Russian-speaking region where Russian-backed separatists have fought government forces since a pro-western revolution in Kyiv in 2014 https://t.co/fmDQ8RduBL pic.twitter.com/vk064wbSHB
— Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) November 16, 2021
Russia poses a significant geopolitical threat to Ukraine, not only in terms of the energy sector but across the political, economic, and security spectrums, writes Eugene Chausovsky.https://t.co/xnaBpYqtYn
— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) November 18, 2021
Why did relations between Washington and Moscow deteriorate so sharply after the end of the Cold War? @e_sarotte details how the United States’ execution of NATO expansion alienated Russia.https://t.co/U1ZsRc5qch
— Foreign Affairs (@ForeignAffairs) November 18, 2021
The astronauts are fine. The International Space Station is fine. But the debris from Russia’s recent anti-satellite test is going to be a threat for years, @marinakoren writes.https://t.co/R79sfZYCHJ
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) November 18, 2021
The International Space Station remains at increased risk from orbiting debris following this week’s Russian weapons test, NASA said. On Monday, Russia launched a missile to destroy a satellite orbiting just above the space station. https://t.co/FmufyJ5FsG
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 18, 2021
“#Russia & #China are sending us a message, and it’s incumbent on us to figure out what that message is.”
Hudson’s @Tim_Morrison weighs in on recent missile tests by Russia & China in comments to @dcexaminer https://t.co/24g73B85BL
— Hudson Institute (@HudsonInstitute) November 18, 2021
The Kremlin said Thursday that Europe should not blame Russia for “all problems,” as tensions with the West simmer over Ukraine and the migrant crisis on the Belarus-Poland borderhttps://t.co/YXkzQNTrFW
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) November 18, 2021
A full‐scale war over Ukraine would be a disaster for everyone involved: Ukraine, Russia, Europe, and America. https://t.co/xSikyrNmQw #CatoFP pic.twitter.com/lbovwTSK1o
— Cato Institute (@CatoInstitute) November 17, 2021
“The best way to deter an aggressive Russia is to make it clear for the Kremlin that Ukraine is strong, but also that it has strong allies who will not leave it alone in the face of Moscow’s ever-increasing aggressiveness,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister … https://t.co/8tzNSVUORL
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) November 17, 2021
Russia’s anti-satellite weapon test may provoke other powers to show off their capabilities. If that happens, it could make space a minefield of speeding garbage for decades or longer. https://t.co/26XfAIcgFq
— New Scientist (@newscientist) November 17, 2021