The Pentagon chief was not aware of the Russian satellite, which the state Department considers space weapons
Moscow. August 16. INTERFAX.RU — Secretary of defense Jim Mattis stated that he was not aware that Russia has launched a satellite that can be considered as a space weapon.
“I can’t comment on that. You know, I simply do not know, do not have this subject,” he said in response to a request of the journalist “to comment on the information representative of the state Department that one of the Russian satellites behaves abnormally and can potentially be considered as space weapons.”
Earlier, the U.S. assistant Secretary of state for issues of arms control, verification and compliance, Ilim Poblet, speaking at the UN Conference on disarmament in Geneva, said that Russia’s desire to create vehicles to engage targets in space “alarming”.
Poblet said that in October last year, the Ministry of defense of Russia put into orbit “Sputnik-inspector spacecraft,” which behaves “abnormally”.
Russian representative to the Conference on disarmament in Geneva Alexander Deyneko called statements Poblet “unfounded, slanderous accusations based on suspicions, assumptions.”