Is the landlord threatening to lock Russia’s main door into space?  Once united as Soviet Socialist Republics, Moscow now finds itself mired in a dispute with Kazakhstan over the future of the famed Cosmodrome, birthplace of so many achievements in space.

The Kremlin is demanding an explanation from Tashkent over remarks made by the head of the Kazakhstan Space Agency, who criticized Moscow for allegedly reneging on agreements and called for changes to the lease agreement.

Russia pays $115 Million a year for the Cosmodrome.  It’s a Russian-speaking city under Russian law with a Russian police force.  But it’s still on Kazakh soil.

The Cosmodrome is the gateway to the International Space Station.  The USSR launched the world’s first satellite Sputnik from that site in 1957.  In 1961, a Vostok spacecraft lifted the first man in space Yuri Gagarin from the Cosmodrome, as well as the first female space traveler Valentina Tereshkova two years later.