"The Roscosmos State Corporation condemns this decision by the US Defense Department and considers it as another manifestation of Washington’s unfair competition on the international space services market," Roscosmos press service said.
It was earlier reported that the US Department of Defense (DoD) will start implementing a ban on certain commercial satellite services from Russia after 2022, a document scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on May 31 revealed on Thursday.
"DoD has adopted as final, without change, an interim rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement sections of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2017 and 2018," the document said.
"One section imposes additional prohibitions with regard to acquisition of certain foreign commercial satellite services, such as cybersecurity risk and source of satellites and launch vehicles used to provide the foreign commercial satellite services, and expands the definition of ‘covered foreign country' to include Russia."
Besides Russia, the list of countries that fall under the term "covered foreign country" includes China, North Korea, Iran, Sudan, and Syria.
Last November, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Director Jim Bridenstine said that the relationship between Russia and the United States in the arena of space remained as strong as it had ever been despite occasional disputes.
The senior official noted that NASA wanted to keep that relationship with Roscosmos strong.
Despite the crisis in bilateral relations over the course of the past years amid disagreements on a number of global issues, including Syria and Ukraine conflicts, as well as the probe into the alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, space has remained an area of fruitful cooperation of the two countries.
