Video: Russia Removes US, Japan Flags From Space Rocket, Keeps India's
NDTV
The symbolic move by the space agency Roscosmos that shows ties between Russia and these nations have nosedived comes a week after Russia invaded Ukraine
The Russian government's space agency has removed the flags of several nations including the US and Japan - but kept India's flag intact - painted on a massive rocket in the spaceport Baikonur. Стартовики на Байконуре решили, что без флагов некоторых стран наша ракета будет краше выглядеть. pic.twitter.com/jG1ohimNuX
The symbolic move by the space agency Roscosmos that shows ties between Russia and these nations have nosedived comes a week after Russia invaded Ukraine over the east European nation's attempts to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, or NATO.
As Russian forces swept cities after cities in Ukraine, NATO member states France, Germany and the UK, and nations friendly to the US, such as Japan, have announced harsh sanctions that targeted trade and taken aggressive measures to cut off Russia from the sporting and cultural world.
"The launchers at Baikonur decided that without the flags of some countries, our rocket would look more beautiful," Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin tweeted.