Russian Cosmonauts Are Fighting a Robot on Twitter

There's some Twitter beef unfolding around Russia's space agency.

Twitter Fight

Things are getting heated on Twitter among disgruntled cosmonauts, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and an anthropomorphic space robot.

If you're confused, don't worry. So is everyone else. But what we do know is that the Twitter spat seems to stem from longtime criticism against current Roscosmos director Dmitry Rogozin that finally boiled over, as Ars Technica reports. After taking some hits, Rogozin seems to have hijacked the account of the Russian space robot Fedor to fire back.

Deep Resentment

Former cosmonaut and current Russian politician Maxim Suraev has long criticized Rogozin, Ars reports, but recently became more aggressive on Twitter, especially to mock Roscosmos for falling behind SpaceX.

Suraev also tweeted out an apology to Yuri Gargarin, the first man to reach space, which was a thinly-veiled jab at Rogozin for letting Roscomos fall behind.

Rogozin doesn't have Twitter anymore — Ars speculates that senior officials told him to delete his notoriously spicy account, so he found a new way to respond.

Enter Fedor

Fedor is a robot that Russia sent to the International Space Station late last year. The robot can use power tools and, inexplicably, fire a pistol. It can also sling some mean insults — the account broke character to accuse Suraev and fellow cosmonaut-turned-official Aleksandr Samikutyayev of getting drunk and slacking off on the job.

Fedor's account was deleted over the weekend, but the attacks matched the former tone of Rogozin's account, Ars reports. With Rogozin deplatformed once more, it will be interesting to see where the spat goes from here.

READ MORE: Cosmonauts mock Russia’s space leader on Twitter, a robot calls them drunks [Ars Technica]

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