[FPSPACE] ESA declines to sign up with 'Kliper'

[Jim Oberg]

Has Russia committed any significant amount of its own money to this project?
It seems to me that Perminov was counting on European and Japanese partners
to fund Kliper. Is there any conceivable way that Putin will provide the funds
from the federal budget? Or is this ESA refusal a major setback to the project?

"The European Space Agency has received 97% of the funding it requested from its member states for the next five years, following a top-level meeting in Berlin, Germany. The only major programme to be cut from the budget was the development of a Russian space plane called the Kliper."
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8426&feedId=online-news_rss20