TASS Russian News Agency
September 9, 2021

US will bear consequences if becomes first to deploy weapons to space — Russian diplomat

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov noted that Russia and China had long been calling for using political and diplomatic means to prevent an arms race in space

MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/.

If the United States becomes the first nation to deploy weapons to space, it will have to bear the consequences, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said in an interview with Kommersant on Thursday (September 9).

“If the United States becomes the first country to do it, Washington will have to bear the serious consequences that it will have for international security and strategic stability.

There are no weapons in space at present. We pledged that we would not be the first to deploy weapons to space and have reiterated the commitment officially 30 times now,” he pointed out.

Ryabkov noted that Russia and China had long been calling for using political and diplomatic means to prevent an arms race in space. “The United States and some of its allies have – like in many other fields – set out to undermine broad international support for these reasonable and quite logical approaches and initiatives. It is being done solely for political reasons that has nothing to do with the goal of strengthening international security. It is an attempt to restrict Russia’s influence on the international stage,” Ryabkov noted.

At the same time, it will only be possible to comment on the specific plans of the US military once it becomes clear what they mean and what’s behind them, the Russian deputy foreign minister added.

SOURCE: https://tass.com/science/1335961

Note https://tass.com/world/1335959 :
At the same time, the deputy foreign minister noted that such documents were no guarantee, given Washington’s current attitude to agreements. According to Ryabkov, it is based on the formula “we will stay if we want to and we will leave if we don’t want to stay.” “However, I don’t rule out that in some cases, making additional agreements that require no ratification or reaching a certain political understanding may be the best option. We have experience in making such documents in various fields, which did work,” he concluded.