'The Empire Strikes Back': Russian official threatens U.S. access to ISS

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Fox News: Russia casts doubt on US' future with the ISS over Ukraine sanctionshttp://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/0...on-us-future-with-iss-over-ukraine-sanctions/http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/0...on-us-future-with-iss-over-ukraine-sanctions/

The head of Russia’s space program says Moscow will reject the United States’ request to use the International Space Station beyond 2020 – the latest twist in a standoff between the two countries over the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who leads Russia’s defense industry, made the announcement Tuesday. He also said Russia will block Washington from using Russian-made rocket engines to launch military satellites, according to Reuters.

"We are ready to deliver these engines but on one condition -- that they will not be used to launch military satellites," Rogozin said. Russia supplies NK-33 and RD-180 engines to the U.S., Reuters reports.

The moves come after the U.S. slapped sanctions on Putin’s allies -- which include Rogozin -- for Russia's intervention in Ukraine. The U.S. also denied export licenses for high-tech items that could aid Russia’s military.

The Little Marxist Dictator has turned us into a second-class nation. We're fighting for scraps among the rest of the third-worlders. We're the nation that sent men to the Moon, not once by six times, and designed a survival method from scratch for a seventh mission gone awry. We're the nation that rid the world of polio, that -- for now -- provides our citizens and anyone else who wants to travel here the best healthcare in the world. We're the nation that saved the world when a madman wanted to split it down the middle with a pseudo-demigod in Asia.

And now we're begging rides to the ISS and taking second-hand rocket engines from the losers in the space race -- though $70 million per ride per person, and $22 million per engine isn't exactly beggar's wages.

Anyone who doesn't see a problem with this picture isn't looking at it in focus.