Russia dismisses ‘unfounded’ Hill speculation over space threat

The Russia “space threat” that has consumed Congress and the Biden White House over the past two days is just a clever ploy to get more money for the Pentagon, the Kremlin’s top spokesman told reporters Thursday.

Top Russian officials were openly dismissive of reports from Washington that Moscow has developed a new space-based military capability — possibly nuclear — that poses a potentially massive threat to U.S. security, describing the intelligence finding as an “unfounded accusation” cooked up to pressure Congress into boosting the defense budget.

The Biden administration “is trying to get Congress to vote on the appropriations bill any way it can,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a Thursday press briefing in Moscow, according to the official Tass news agency. “It’s obvious. Let’s see what tricks, so to speak, the White House is going to pull.”

Russian skeptics noted that the story has surfaced as the administration is struggling to pass a major military aid package in Congress, including some $60 billion earmarked for Ukraine in its fight to repel a Russian invasion force.

The U.S. and NATO have repeatedly accused top officials of the government of President Vladimir Putin of using alarmist rhetoric regarding Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal in a bid to intimidate Ukraine and its Western allies.

But Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who has played a public role in setting Russia’s nuclear strategy, told Tass the U.S. should supply proof when it makes allegations like those that surfaced this week.

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“It fits the trend over the last decade of the Americans engaging in malicious fantasizing, attributing all sorts of actions and intentions to us that don’t suit them,” Mr. Ryabkov told the news service.

“We constantly say to them that unfounded accusations of various types are not something that we will respond to. If they make any kind of claim, they should accompany it with evidence,” he added.

The Russian news outlet Sputnik International quoted a Russian military think-tank expert who argued the U.S. was far more guilty of militarizing space than Russia, and that the confusing reports out of Washington made it hard to determine what new intelligence had been found to justify the hype.

“Some say that something has already been deployed [in space], some say that something is planned to be deployed, some are talking about nuclear arms, and some are speculating about nuclear power equipment,”  Dmitry Stefanovich, a research fellow at the Moscow-based Institute of World Economy and International Relations, was quoted as saying, saying the comments critical of Russia appeared to be an exercise in “smoke and mirrors.”