11–12 of 12 posts
ISS is uninhabitable w/o the Russian modules. And lest those forget, Cosmos carried every astronaut to ISS in the last decade because the US had nothing.
Outside of the moralized "Santa Claus" worldview that is fed to children, and simplistic propaganda/click-bait/news for the masses, international relations are always complex, highly compartmentalized, and subject to tight "current rules of engagement" control in each little area. That helps keep things calm, predictable, & controlled. And provides thousands of tiny "carrots & sticks" levers for leaders to fiddle wit…
In principle yes, but the current situation is still exceptional. There used to be a variety of areas of cooperation, e.g. in science projects, between russia and the EU states. This was kept up even after the annexation of Crimea on the same basis as you describe. However, after the invasion started, much of it has been shut down.
The Apollo-Soyuz mission was conceived, approved by top-level leadership in both the U.S. and U.S.S.R., and mostly planned while the U.S. military (not just local proxy forces) was still heavily and directly engaged in the Vietnam War.