Demise of US / Russia Space Relationship?

Martin Sieff opines that the cordial space relationship between the United States and Russia is unravelling as a result of recent friction on issues such as the fight over the election in the Ukraine.

While recent political conflicts are certainly making things a bit more difficult for space operations, such a case can be easily overstated - if only because mutual need has obscured the persistently tenuous relationship between these two space powers. Since the end of the Cold War, Russia has ssen space operations as a means of gaining hard currency through one of its few world class industries while the US had an interest in keeping the former USSR's space scientists employed on civilian projects. As the Russian economy has improved, the incentives for the Russian government have declined while the American administration has for some time been gazing at most policy issues through the anti-terrorism lens. The refocusing of the long term NASA mission towards exploration goals probably has not helped the relationship either given the perception that Russia can be the most help to the much maligned International Space Station.