The ability of the Russian space industry to embark on a serious ASAT development effort seems highly questionable. First of all, Russia has lost both the military and industrial organizational infrastructure that was responsible for research and development in the area of anti-satellite or space-based weapons. On the military side, the anti-satellite research and development programs were managed by the Air Defense Forces, which used to be a separate service in the Soviet armed forces. This service, however, was disbanded during the military reform of 1997. The units that supported operations of missile defense and antisatellite systems, space surveillance and early warning networks were subordinated to the Strategic Rocket Forces. In 2000, however, these systems were removed from the Strategic Rocket Forces and brought under command of a new branch of armed forces-Space Forces. The status of this new branch within the armed forces, however, makes it difficult for it to initiate any major research and development effort. The changes in the defense industry have been much more serious. While Russia has managed to keep most of its space industry intact, this does not apply to the companies that were involved in the development of anti-satellite systems. In the Soviet Union, that development was managed by the Ministry of Radio Industry, not by the Ministry of General Machine Building, which was responsible for the space program. In the early 1990s, as old Soviet defense ministries were being abolished, the key space industry enterprises were transferred to the Russian Space Agency (now Russian Aviation and Space Agency, Rosaviakosmos), which helped them maintain their viability. The Ministry of Radio Industry enterprises and design bureaus were moved to the Ministry of Economics together with other defense companies and have been largely neglected. As a result of these transformations, Russia now does not have an agency that would be capable of supporting development program in the area of anti-satellite systems or spacebased weapons.

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Podvig, Pavel. "Russian Military Space Capabilities." Ensuring America's Space Security. Ed. Phillip E. Coyle. Washington, D.C.: Federation of American Scientists, September 2004. [ 3 quotes ] [ page 127-8 ]