Russia retains its leadership in space industry — Putin

Russia’s successes in space exploration indicate that Russia retained its leadership in this area, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference after the talks with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, which took place at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur Region.

“Everything that we’ve seen during our visit to Vostochny, all successes in space exploration achieved in recent years prove that our country retains its leadership in space industry, is one of the leaders in this area,” he said.

Putin called the fact that the talks with Lukashenko took place on the Cosmonautics Day at the Vostochny Cosmodrome an important and symbolic one.

According to Putin, the people of Russia and Belarus are proud that the Yuri Gagarin’s first spaceflight 61 years ago opened a new era of space exploration.

“On this significant day, Alexander Grigoryevich [Lukashenko] and I visited the key facilities of Vostochny,” the President said.