# Kazahkstan Seized Roscosmos Assets… **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 20, 2023, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kazahkstan-seized-roscosmos-assets/981390 "2023-03-20T01:22:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kazahkstan-seized-roscosmos-assets/981390/1 "2023-03-20T01:22:15Z")
…For non-payment of debts. Now, to me this pretty much looks bad for Putin, even if it really is a nothing-burger, it just looks bad from a status point of view. Historically Russia has pretty much been The Premier Pioneer of Space (with the US a close second) so that’s got to sting, right? Is it a nothing burger? Or is it further signs of weaking of the current Russian State as headed and controlled by Putin? Am I just reading too much into it? Erm, I learned of it from Anton Petrov, Youtube science explainer guy, but here is a link to a duck duck go [results](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=kazakhstan+seizes+roscosmos+assets&t=iphone&iar=news&ia=news) page with plenty of articles about it. Also, I don’t mean to imply that all Roscosmos assets have been seized, just certain specific assets. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kazahkstan-seized-roscosmos-assets/981390/2 "2023-03-20T02:37:38Z")
If seems to be a small vendor linked to Roscosmos. It’s probably not meaningful from a political or scientific standpoint but, to date, Russia has been doing a good job of moving forward without any apparent financial problems. They’ve made their economy behave, despite the pressure. I’d mostly read this as the hint of a crack in the foundation. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kazahkstan-seized-roscosmos-assets/981390/3 "2023-03-20T08:32:39Z")
> [@DorkVader](#): > > Historically Russia has pretty much been The Premier Pioneer of Space (with the US a close second) Russia/Soviet Union has not been the Premier Pioneer of Space for a long time. They were ahead of the US in the 60s, but have long since been passed up. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kazahkstan-seized-roscosmos-assets/981390/4 "2023-03-22T02:30:21Z")
> “What we’re seeing is the continuing demise of the Russian civil space program,” says Bruce McClintock, a former defense attaché at the US embassy in Moscow and current head of the Space Enterprise Initiative of the Rand Corporation, a nonprofit research organization. Around 10 years ago, Russian leaders chose to prioritize the country’s military space program—which focuses on satellite and anti-satellite technologies—over its civilian one, McClintock says, and it shows. > **[Russia’s Space Program Is in Big Trouble](https://www.wired.com/story/russias-space-program-is-in-big-trouble/)** > > A set of Soyuz spacecraft coolant leaks hints that Roscosmos is struggling as the space agency loses international partnerships and funding. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kazahkstan-seized-roscosmos-assets/981390/5 "2023-03-22T02:51:59Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I’d mostly read this as the hint of a crack in the foundation. More like a chip in the existing pile of rubble. It’s hard to exaggerate how far they’ve fallen already. There were signs long before Ukraine, but that has only accelerated things. The reliability of every one of their programs is in the gutter. And even if it weren’t, they killed their commercial spaceflight program when they decided to seize their customer’s payloads (OneWeb).