Roscosmos to only accept future payments in rubles
Shooting yourself in the foot: Dmitry Rogozin today announced that Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos — which controls its entire aerospace industry — will from now on only accept future payments in rubles for foreign companies and countries.
First, because of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of the Ukraine, Roscosmos no longer has much business outside of Russia. There are only a very tiny handful of foreign companies or countries left having contracts with Roscosmos, so this new rule won’t affect many.
Second, this order will guarantee that the last few will flee, and that there will be not any new foreign contracts to follow. The ruble these days is worthless. No one will want to buy rubles to pay Russia. And if they do, it will be a fake paper transaction created only seconds before payment, merely to meet the rule. Why should anyone bother, even China?
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Shooting yourself in the foot: Dmitry Rogozin today announced that Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos — which controls its entire aerospace industry — will from now on only accept future payments in rubles for foreign companies and countries.
First, because of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of the Ukraine, Roscosmos no longer has much business outside of Russia. There are only a very tiny handful of foreign companies or countries left having contracts with Roscosmos, so this new rule won’t affect many.
Second, this order will guarantee that the last few will flee, and that there will be not any new foreign contracts to follow. The ruble these days is worthless. No one will want to buy rubles to pay Russia. And if they do, it will be a fake paper transaction created only seconds before payment, merely to meet the rule. Why should anyone bother, even China?
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Will they take Confederate?
They also only want to see gas in rubles.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20220324_06/
Actually, if we look at the reality, the Ruble is not at all worthless. It has dropped by about 25%. Since India, China and Saudiarabia have decided to trade with each other without using any dollars, and inflation is going hyper in the dollar, my recommendation to sell dollar and buy ruble, yuan, rupee. The Russians have energy and food. In the rest of Europe we have neither. Guess who is fup now!
This hard isolation of the West from the majority of the world economy was not a good idea. It will hurt us all very hard. And for what? Because we tried to force Ukraine to become a NATO member? Why was it so very important that Ukraine could not be a neutral country? Now millions of the poorest people will starve to death. Why did the NATO countries’ politicians insist on that? And they are all democratically elected, so the responsibility is on the voters, who now are to suffer hard themselves, because they failed to think when they made their decision.
LocalFulff got it backward: “we tried to force Ukraine to become a NATO member?”
Ukraine kept begging to join NATO and the member countries kept refusing, preventing Ukraine from being an ally of the west and the west from being Ukraine’s ally. What part of being in NATO would make Ukraine a neutral country, since the purpose of NATO is to oppose Russian expansion into NATO member countries? Even the European Union was refusing Ukrainian membership, but what part of EU membership is neutral?
With Russia being the aggressor and with it threatening to use nuclear weaponry, it is clear that Russia is the bully on that continent.
“inflation is going hyper in the dollar”
“Hyper” is an exaggeration, but it shows that the Democratic Party’s leftist policies are recognized by the rest of the world to be poor policies, causing problems, not solutions. If the world goes away from the dollar, that would be a result of leftist policies.
USA & Europe have demonstrated they will prevent anyone from using their currency whenever they’re in the mood.
So Russia is only being rational in rejecting dollars or euros.
Maybe the Dems will continue to treat SpaceX like they do Russia, so only the SLS is allowed to launch, and it explodes on first attempt, then NASA goes running back to Musk, and he says “F-U, get the Russians to help you.” for 8 trillion rubles or whatever they’ll demand.
I can dream.
David Parsons: Watch your language. Abbreviating curse words doesn’t work for me, it is as bad as saying them.
David, if I was Musk, my response after NASA comes hat-in-hand to me would be very simple.
“Tell your government bosses and busybodies to get their ideology-driven regulatory roadblocks out of my way, and I will launch your payloads for what will then be a reasonable price.”
This over-dependence upon China by the world economy was not a good idea. It will hurt us all very hard. And for what?
Edited for accuracy, LocalFluff. This is not so much a tragedy, as it is a wake-up call to the West to stop following the path of least resistance … right off the cliff … and instead rebuild our own capabilities. And just as important, move away from our own blind trust in authoritarian Answer Men, and back to respect for the responsible exercise of individual initiative that is the root of Western prosperity,
And China is as much or more likely to be hurt by being isolated from the world economy if it joins with Putin in support of totalitarian expansionism, They need us, more than we need them.
Really? With the exception of the Dragon, and I don’t think it is ready for man flight to the ISS; how will NASA astronauts get there? Another commenter mentioned they are demanding payments for oil and natural gas to be paid in their currency. If Saudi Arabia is going to go through with allowing the Chinese to pay for gas in their currency the reign of the “Petro Dollar” as the only reserve is coming to an end.
Mike: Three different Dragon capsules have already flown multiple times to ISS, carrying humans, beginning in 2020. NASA hasn’t needed the Russians to get to ISS since then.
I also expect Starliner to become operational by the end of this year, giving the U.S. two manned spacecraft for getting humans into space.
I think your very optimistic about Starliner.
sippin bourbon: Yeah, you could very easily be right. My instincts however are telling me that Boeing will finally get over the hump and launch a successful unmanned mission this year, followed by a manned mission.
Whether I would consider that capsule safe is another question.