The russian space program and their entanglement with NASA is something I would really like to keep going forward.
I think I understand the other factors, but this helps to keep US politics in check, even if just by a tiny bit.
The only thing keeping US politics "in check" is US citizens. So far, I'd rather have a world "slightly dominated" by the US rather than by the Chinese or Russians...
If you think that anything space related has pull on US politics, you are wrong. Our current congress would cut NASA's funding in a heartbeat if it remotely conflicted with any of their interests.
This is unfortunately true per Neil Degrasse Tyson's (NDT) speech in front of Congress to increase NASA's federal budget. It currently stands at 0.48% of the Federal Budget. There is a great youtube video highlighted NDT's points on this. I believe the video was around the initiative http://www.penny4nasa.org
Sanctions are worthless as a chess move if we're willing to still give them tons of money through things like NASA.
I agree the entanglement is a good thing, but our dependence
on them might have been contributory to their boldness on
Ukraine, deterrence is still needed.
Cooperation and interdependence prevents these events.