The Kremlin has blasted what it is calling the "malicious fabrication" by the US government of its alleged new 'space weapon' which set off a frenzy of media speculation this week.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he believes it was a trick by lawmakers to get Biden's massive Ukraine and foreign defense aid package passed. "It’s obvious that Washington is trying to force Congress to vote on the aid bill by hook or by crook," he said.
US officials and media continue to walk back the initial hyped and headline-grabbing claims of a Russian nuclear space weapon.
According to the latest from Reuters, "The space-based weapon U.S. intelligence believes Russia may be developing is more likely a nuclear-powered device to blind, jam or fry the electronics inside satellites than an explosive nuclear warhead to shoot them down, analysts said."
And more, "Analysts tracking Russia's space programs say the space threat is probably not a nuclear warhead but rather a high-powered device requiring nuclear energy to carry out an array of attacks against satellites." The report goes on to list:
These might include signal-jammers, weapons that can blind image sensors, or - a more dire possibility - electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) that could fry all satellites' electronics within a certain orbital region."
During a Thursday press briefing White House national security council spokesman John Kirby belatedly confirmed that reports of a new Russian capability was related to "an anti-satellite capability that Russia is developing," but that "This is not an active capability that’s been deployed."
It all started when Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio set Capitol Hill media correspondents into a frenzy of speculation after on Wednesday he issued an ominous-sounding statement about "information concerning a serious national security threat."
Cue trolling and mockery by Russian government accounts...
⚡️⚡️ YET ANOTHER THREAT ⚡️⚡️:
— Russian Embassy in South Africa 🇷🇺 (@EmbassyofRussia) February 16, 2024
Russia’s nuclear space “weapon”
With everyone talking about the US government panicking over a new Russian “space weapon”, we suggest to look into what it really could be.
(Remember the warmongers in the West saying Russia was stealing washing… pic.twitter.com/ILEGjCaH5Y
This sparked a very short-lived media panic, and by Friday it's already largely been forgotten about. There are even new reports saying Moscow has held out the possibility of cooperation with the West on new satellite technology, but of course this could also be another example of the Kremlin trolling Western media.
