The Russian Space Agency (Roskosmos) has accused US President Donald Trump and America of laying the groundwork for controlling other planets by signing an executive order setting out the outlines of commercial mining policy in space.
This executive order was signed yesterday, and Roskosmos says it harms the field of international cooperation in space.
The agency added that "outer space is a unique field for human activity in terms of legal and natural, but that the United States does not consider it a global commons."
The agency said that this executive order puts the United States in the position of confronting the theory that space belongs to all of humanity.
The agency's statement stated that "attempts to confiscate outer space and aggressive plans to physically seize areas of other planets would lead to the removal of countries (from the path) towards fruitful cooperation."
"Any kind of attempt to privatize space in one way or another will not be acceptable," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. He added: "I find it difficult to judge now whether we can view this as an attempt to privatize the space