Despite the highly publicized struggles of Russia’s civilian space sector, Moscow has been consistently building up its military presence in space. Its co-orbital systems — those capable of closely trailing other satellites in orbit — are comfortably matching and possibly outperforming those operated by China and the U.S. ... Christopher Johnson, a space law researcher at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, told Supercluster that because the 1967 Outer Space Treaty fails to ban non-destructive proximity operations explicitly, Russia’s actions cannot technically be classified as illegal. However, the nations that host ICEYE operations—including Finland, the U.K., the U.S., and Poland—can use treaty mechanisms to demand that Russia cease intrusions. “Based on the Outer Space Treaty, Article IX, the states where ICEYE has offices have a right to request consultations sovereign treaty right to request consultations about what Cosmos 2612 is up to,” Johnson said. “In turn, Russia has the sovereign treaty obligation to engage in those consultations.” He added the ICEYE home states could go as far as imposing travel restrictions on diplomats and expelling them if Russia refused to cooperate. https://www.supercluster.com/editorial/russia-s-manoeuvers-in-orbit-raise-concerns-of-space-attack