Russia Is Bored With U.S.-Subsidized Russian Human Space Flight

Manned space flights no longer priority for Russia, Reuters
“Russia holds a monopoly on flights to and from the 16-nation station. Soyuz launches from its Baikonur cosmodrome are now the only way to space since the United States retired its 30-year shuttle programme in July. NASA pays it more than $50 million per flight to send its astronauts to the space outpost. Roskosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin said Russia was spending almost half of its space budget on manned flights and needed to shift focus to more technology-oriented projects. He added however it would stand by its station commitments.”
Keith’s note: I guess Russia is only interested in human spaceflight – but only so long as the U.S. writes them checks. So, when they say that they are “spending half its space budget on manned flights” I wonder how much of their budget actually came from the U.S. to begin with ….