Who comes up with this stuff? They want "the new space station (to) be used to produce materials that are impossible to manufacture on Earth..." So that's something that can't be done with ISS? Is that not one of the arguments for building the damn ISS in the first place?

They want to "improve the methods of remote monitoring of the Earth..." Has anyone in the Russian Space Agency heard of unmanned satellites? Why do they need a manned space station to monitor Russian territory at that inclination?

They "would test technologies for space travel to the Moon and Mars... " What the hell have the last 3-4 space stations they've built been for?? How many earth orbiting space stations need to be built to "test technologies" for deep space travel? Why not build FIFTY more space stations over the next 150 years before ever leaving earth orbit?

A better idea: Build deep space crafts that can test deep space technologies.

I thought the Ruskies were smarter than this.