Russia suspends space launches from French Guiana

Amid EU sanctions against Ruusia and president Putin, Moscow has decided to suspent space launches from French Guiana and withdrawing its technical personnel. The Russian space agency Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin announced on Sunday that in response to the EU sanctions, the agency suspends its cooperation with European partners on space launches from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou. According to Russia's media reports, there are 87 Russian citizens currently at the cosmodrome. Their departure is currently being organized. The EU imposed financial and technological sanctions against 64 key Russian structures, including the Progress rocket and space center. The EU significantly restricted their access to financial service, technical aid and trade in technology and equipment, including oil drilling equipment for the Arctic. The EU sanctions list also includes communication devices, electronics, semiconductors, aviation and space components.

Russia has announced it is partially limiting access to Facebook, after the social network platform limited the accounts of several Kremlin-backed media outlets amid Russia's military operations in Ukraine. The Russian communications regulator, Roskomnadzor in a statement said  that its partial restriction on Facebook have been imposed. The statement also said, it had demanded Facebook lift the restrictions it put on state news agency RIA Novosti, state TV channel Zvezda, and pro-Kremlin news sites Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru on Thursday. The official statement described its actions as measures to protect Russian media. Meanwhile, Facebook's parent company, Meta Platforms Inc, said, it refused to stop fact-checking Russia's state-owned media.