The White House is planning to issue a temporary sanctions waiver to allow Dmitri Rogozin, the head of Russia’s space agency and a longtime nationalist firebrand entrusted with some of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most delicate foreign policy errands, to visit the United States next year. The announcement was made by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine who, while on a visit to Moscow, expressed his wish to “forge strong working relations” with Rogozin. In addition to meetings at NASA, Bridenstine invited his Russian counterpart to speak to students at his alma mater in Houston. “Rice University is on the same street as the Johnson Space Center, so I think it will all work out,” said the NASA chief in anticipation of the visit.
OP-ED
Vladimir Kara-Murza: The White House is letting a Russian ultra-nationalist in to the US – despite sanctions
Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, speaks with the media upon arrival with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin (both not pictured) in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on Oct. 11, 2018.
