From Jim Oberg's translation:
Russia threatens to descend from orbit 02.10.2002.

The President of rocket-space corporation Energia Yuri Semenov proposed
yesterday to diverge from the global plans with respect to the mastery of
near-earth space. In the interview for Interfax he for the first time aired
for the general public the proposal that has already long ago been discussed
by the leaders of the most important space firms that are working
predominantly on naked enthusiasm.
The head of RKK-Energia considers that under the conditions of chronic
underfunding it is necessary to forego a constant presence of cosmonauts and
astronauts in orbit, and to send ships to the ISS in proportion to the
amount of money available.
It is obvious that this statement is caused by the most complex
financial position of the corporation. According to Yuri Semenov, "The debt
of RKK-Energia before the banks comprises 1 billion rubles, banks refuse to
grant further credits". The building of the "Soyuz" spacecraft, which must
deliver into orbit the next expedition in the autumn of 2003, is already
frozen.
The commercial projects of the corporation do not even closely redeem
the expenditures for the execution of state programs on ISS. And "Energia"
can't even depend on getting the budgetary appropriations: in recent years
the corporation along with the majority of other space firms, has had to
return half of the state-allocated money "for the debts".
Moreover, the needs of space branch obviously do not coincide with the
capabilities of the state. For example, in the budget of 2003 for
RKK-Energia were placed 1,2 billion rubles [$40 million], although, on the
most modest calculations, the obligations of Russia to the partners in the
ISS project require not less than 4,2 billion rubles [$140 million].
To some degree the voiced proposal by Yuri Semenov "to live on our own
means" is blackmail. Indeed it implies the pilotless regime of the operation
of the station, fraught with contingency situations, as known from the
experience of Mir and as the President of RKK-Energia himself emphasizes.
Although the sad fate of the same station "Mir" shows that even the general
patriotism in the highest circles of state power cannot be the guarantee of
the retention of national priorities, if there just physically aren't any
means in the budget.
It is not excluded, however, that at this time Mr. Semenov's words were
addressed not so much to the Kremlin and Parliament, but otherwise to
partners in the ISS, first of all to American NASA. As the leader of the
press-service of Rosaviakosmos Sergey Gorbunov reported to the correspondent
of the newspaper "News Time", in the middle of October Russia intends to
officially propose to the partners to reexamine the regime of operation of
the ISS. The details of these proposals thus far are not disclosed. However,
it is possible to assume that, if American and European space agencies
express the readiness to take upon themselves the part of the additional
financial obligations, the opinion of Russian specialists relative to the
further fate of the ISS can change.

Raoul