Mysterious Russian Satellite Worries United States

The United States has raised concern over Russia’s launch of a mysterious satellite in the space, the US claims the satellite is exhibiting abnormal behavior, thereby accusing Moscow of developing new space weapons in the outer space too.

The Russian side made it clear that the satellite is a space apparatus inspector, but the US official is not ready to buy Russia’s logic. Yleem Poblete said, “We don’t know for certain what it is and there is no way to verify it. But Russian intentions with respect to this satellite are unclear and are obviously a very troubling development”. 

Speaking at the UN Conference on Disarmament, Poblete, who is also the Assistant Secretary for arms control, verification and compliance said the object could be a weapon and is disturbing given the recent behavior of Russia. While Alexander Deyneko, a senior Russian diplomat in Geneva at the UN Conference dismissed Poblete’s comments and said, “the same unfounded, slanderous accusations based on suspicions, on suppositions and so on”.

In February during a meeting of UN Conference on Disarmament, Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, stressed the importance of preventing an arms race in outer space. But in the following month March, Russian president Vladimir Putin unveiled six new major offensive weapons systems, including the Peresvet military mobile laser system. It is also believed that Russia’s space agency is developing a laser that can destroy objects in space.

Yleem Poblete, therefore, said, “To the United States this is yet further proof that the Russian actions do not match their words”. She also said a draft treaty proposed by China and Russia on the prevention of a space arms race would not prevent the pursuit of counter space capabilities or stop the testing or stockpiling of anti-satellite weapons.

The United States had not proposed amendments to the draft treaty, Alexander Deyneko, said. He also said, “They should be active in working to develop a treaty that would 100 percent satisfy the security interests of the American people. But they have not made this constructive contribution.”

On the other hand, China’s disarmament ambassador Fu Cong called for substantive discussions on outer space, leading to negotiations. He said, “China has always stood for peaceful use of outer space and we are against weaponisation of outer space, an arms race in outer space, or even more turning outer space into a battle field”.

A US intelligence report published earlier this year warned Russia and China for developing destructive counter space weapons, which could be ready to use in the next few years.

The US President Donald Trump has a month back, instructed the Pentagon to create a space force to establish American dominance outside the Earth’s atmosphere. He raised the issue during a meeting of the National Space Council and announced his intention to reclaim primacy in the outer space with a new branch of the military. Though senior members of the US armed forces have opposed the move.