But you’ve never been there, have you– particularly in Cold War times. DCSCA has.

Even at the height of tensions, PanAm flew into Moscow once a month and your Paul McCartney LPs were prized items circulating amongst the young, along with ballpoint pens and blue jeans. We literally had people trying to buy out clothes and writing instruments. Putin is cut from the last dregs of the Cold War mentality. The Soviet Union aka Russia was a superpower. It is not now, and losing that status is a bitter pill to swallow–something the U.S. is beginning to experience as its ability to project influence starts to wane. But spaceflgiht has a different place in Russian culture than in the United States. You should see it first hand. There are quite literally monuments to it across the country; it is a source of pride and the country maintained it through severee political upheavals (a characteristic not narly as strong in the U.S.– as recent events have shown.) The Russian people have embraced spaceflight as part of their culture; as part of their national character. As far as history is concerned, they essentially invented it– from Sputnik to Gagarin. The ISS contracting is transactional. It’s business. And the Russians are more than pleased to have their Soyuz and Progress spacecraft as ssential elements of the system at hand.

There’s McDonald’s in Red Square now. And Rolls Royce dealerships i Moscow nd St. Petersburg. Lenin remains green in his tomb and the old folks still visit- but there’s open chatter of placing him in ‘cold war storage’ as well. Putin is a hiccup; a transient in the massive change in Russia since 1991. Whn he is gone, he will be remembered, if at all, as a bump in the road of change.

“Has the expensive rover accomplished ANYTHING the cheaper versions could not have done Scientifically?”

If you mean Opportunity (MER-B) vs Curiosity (MSL), then yes, Curiosity does more.

Putin is a very typical Russian leader. For a thousand years, they’ve had autocratic leadership, whether it was a tsar or the Communist Party. This is natural for them.

Last night’s Rachel Maddow show had a segment about how Putin never smiles at global leaders’ summits. Well, Russians as a culture tend not to smile. Russians think it suspicious if someone smiles at you for no reason. We think it’s a gesture that you’re being friendly. They think you’re up to something. Russians as a culture are a bit paranoid, and after studying one thousand years of Russian history you understand why.

We tend to think the rest of the world will be nice to us if we’re nice to them. That’s not how it works. Everyone is out for their own interests, and Russia in particular operates that way. They don’t care what we want. They only care what they want.

It’s in their interest to continue multi-national operations on the ISS. And so it will continue.

As for Snowden, Putin knows he holds a card we want. So long as we act like Snowden is important, they will hold that over us. The smart thing is to say, “You’re welcome to him.” The damage is done. It’s not like Snowden is going to contribute anything meaningful over there, and because he was a massive leaker here they’re sure not going to trust him. They’ll punt him to the curb once his usefulness is done.

As for space, Roscosmos and the Russian commercial space industry are in deep trouble. Success with any commercial satellite launch these days is an iffy question. They’ve openly acknowledged they have to reform or business will go overseas.

Severing ISS relations only helps send business elsewhere. Again, not in their interest.

As an aside … Putin is a huge fan of U.S. rock music. In a documentary a few years ago, it showed Putin meeting with Paul McCartney. He told Sir Paul how when he was in the KGB they would smuggle in Beatles LPs. Later in the film, McCartney was performing in Red Square, and Putin walked in unannounced with his entourage. You can see that moment on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84GJsQlGbmM.