It is not very often that you have two Russian ministers making statements condemning weaponization of space. The defense minister, Sergey Ivanov, simply repeated the Russian official opposition to weaponization in space (which is very good - these things need to be confirmed once in a while). But the foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, was more inventive - he was reported as saying that Russia objects deployment of nuclear weapons in space. Well, of course it does - there is a treaty for that. It's called the Outer Space Treaty and it's been around for a while.
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Russia's position on the weaponization of space is, as you say, well known, as is the 1967 Outer Space Treaty's ban on orbiting weapons of mass destruction.
Ivanov's comment seems to have been a reaction to comments made by Gen. Obering of the MDA at a recent conference on ballistic missile defence. Though the possibility of space-based interceptors was hedged about with many qualifiers, Obering reportedly said this at the conference: "We intend, beginning in '08, to establish a space-based test bed so we can explore options for space-based interceptors."
This quote appeared in a Defense Daily story, which someone has posted in the comments section of a blog.
On a somewhat related matter, I wonder what you think of reports that Ivanov recently announced that Russia would work with NATO to create a missile defence system that could protect all of Europe.
Has Ivanov really made such a claim about a joint system, and has NATO rejected his views, as this story reports?
Or, was Ivanov, perhaps, simply overstating the significance of recent military exercises on limited theatre-missile-defence in third countries?
Yes, you are right - both ministers reacted to the Obering statement. I just found it amusing that Lavrov does not seem to realise that nuclear weapons in space have been banned a long time ago. Ivanov (the defense minster), on the other hand, did everything right, reiterating the opposition to weapons in space.
On missile defense in Europe, it's an old story - the Russian military have been constantly trying to suggest something like that. The most serious attempt was undertaken in March-April 2001 - a high-level delegation handed a "detailed plan for European missile defense" over to NATO (here is a slide from that plan). The idea was not taken seriously by anyone, but apparently that hasn't quite registered with the Russian military.