The man heading up Russia’s Roscosmos space agency claimed that verification of America’s moon landings would be part of his agency’s next mission, according to a video shared on Saturday.
Dmitry Rogozin’s tweet, according to Google translate, reads, “I answer questions of the President of Moldova: whether there were Americans on the moon, why do you have @roscosmos fighters and trams and how Russian astronautics will help Moldovan grapes?”
Отвечаю на вопросы президента Молдавии: были ли американцы на Луне, зачем у @roscosmos есть истребители и трамваи и как российская космонавтика поможет молдавскому винограду?https://t.co/IRV3HUT6Sz
— Дмитрий Рогозин (@Rogozin) November 24, 2018
In the shared video, AP reports that Rogozin also took questions regarding whether or not Americans actually succeeded in landing on the moon in 1969 — a common conspiracy theory amongst Russians. (RELATED: Trump On Neil Armstrong Planting The American Flag: There Was No Kneeling On The Moon)
“We have set this objective to fly and verify whether they’ve been there or not,” Rogozin responded with a smirk and a shrug, leaving it to his audience to determine whether or not his comment was in jest.
NASA would beg to differ.
American moon landing conspiracy theories are so prevalent in Russia that in 2015, the Russian Federation Investigative Committee ordered an investigation into the 1969 lunar landings, purporting to determine once and for all whether or not they had been faked.
Vladimir Markin, the committee’s spokesman, called for the investigation in response to an investigation into FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) — led by the U.S. — questioning whether or not corruption had played a role in Russia being selected to host the World Cup.