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Russia reacted angrily Wednesday to a report that it suspects US astronauts have deliberately breached a hole on the international space station, one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries.
The hole was detected on the ISS last month and was quickly sealed, but Russia has suggested that it was deliberately drilled.
The Russian daily Kommersant reported on Wednesday that an investigation by the Russian space agency was investigating the possibility that US astronauts had deliberately punctured the hole in order to send home a sick colleague.
Kommersant said this scenario was considered "in priority", citing a source participating in the survey.
But Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov rejected Kommersant's report, stating that "it is absolutely unacceptable to cast a shadow on either our cosmonauts or American astronauts," the state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported.
The Deputy Prime Minister stated that he was "short-sighted and dangerous" to speculate until the publication of the findings of the investigation.
He also pointed out that the ISS was "a unified group where there is no political disagreement".
The Russian space agency Roscosmos told AFP that she would make no official comment before the publication of the results, which is expected to take place this month.
The astronauts located the August 30th hole in a Russian-made spacecraft moored at the ISS after an air leak was detected on board, and closed it with putty.
Space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin told reporters last week that the hole could have been a deliberate act of sabotage and hinted that it could have happened both in space and on Earth.
On Wednesday, Rogozine wrote on Facebook that "spreading speculation and rumors about the ISS incident does not help the Roscosmos experts and aims to undermine the relationships between the comrades of the space station crew."
On Tuesday, he told reporters that the initial findings showed that "the situation is much more complicated than it once seemed."
The crews of the ISS are transported to and from the space station of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The hole was drilled in a section of Soyuz that will not be used for return to Earth.
Russia reacted angrily Wednesday to a report that it suspects US astronauts have deliberately breached a hole on the international space station, one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries.
The hole was detected on the ISS last month and was quickly sealed, but Russia has suggested that it was deliberately drilled.
The Russian daily Kommersant reported on Wednesday that an investigation by the Russian space agency was investigating the possibility that US astronauts had deliberately punctured the hole in order to send home a sick colleague.
Kommersant said this scenario was considered "in priority", citing a source participating in the survey.
But Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov rejected Kommersant's report, stating that "it is absolutely unacceptable to cast a shadow on either our cosmonauts or American astronauts," the state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported.
The Deputy Prime Minister stated that he was "short-sighted and dangerous" to speculate until the publication of the findings of the investigation.
He also pointed out that the ISS was "a unified group where there is no political disagreement".
The Russian space agency Roscosmos told AFP that she would make no official comment before the publication of the results, which is expected to take place this month.
The astronauts located the August 30th hole in a Russian-made spacecraft moored at the ISS after an air leak was detected on board, and closed it with putty.
Space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin told reporters last week that the hole could have been a deliberate act of sabotage and hinted that it could have happened both in space and on Earth.
On Wednesday, Rogozine wrote on Facebook that "spreading speculation and rumors about the ISS incident does not help the Roscosmos experts and aims to undermine the relationships between the comrades of the space station crew."
On Tuesday, he told reporters that the initial findings showed that "the situation is much more complicated than it once seemed."
The crews of the ISS are transported to and from the space station of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The hole was drilled in a section of Soyuz that will not be used for return to Earth.
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