The AP reports:
Russia is working to develop anti-satellite weapons to match efforts by other nations, a deputy defense minister was quoted as saying Thursday.
Gen. Valentin Popovkin said Russia continues to oppose a space arms race but will respond to moves made by other countries, according to Russian news reports.
"We can't sit back and quietly watch others doing that, such work is being conducted in Russia," Popovkin was quoted as saying.
Popovkin plays the classic Russian game here, in that he publicly pretends as if he's opposed to the weaponization of space, but is -- regrettably -- forced to inject his forces into to the final frontier because of Western aggression. The same old song-and-dance has been played out since the early days of the space race, with both sides seeking to protect communication and spy satellites with offensive counterspace weapons.
The Russians, for their part, have been toying around with hunter-killer satellites, space lasers, and fighter released anti-satellite missiles since the days of Khrushchev. In the mid-1970s, Ivan spun himself up into such a paranoid frenzy over the Space Shuttle (which Breshnev was convinced was a space bomber), that they blew a kingly share of resources modifying the Tsyklon-2 ICBM to reach higher altitudes (no doubt the "nuke the space shuttle" plan was one of the more surreal plots from the Cold War era).
So despite half-hearted PR claims that they are "reluctantly" entering the space arena, the truth is they've been there all along.
