It's enshittification, just more enshittification. This is what should maybe have been taken more into account before the decision to have those two astronauts stranded on ISS was made. There is a real danger that ongoing, accelerating enshittification of all things will deliver an unexpected curve-ball, preventing their successful return, I hate to say. It might have been a better decision to try and get them off whilst they still could, but maybe nobody could take responsibility for making that decision, due to the systemic forces of enshittifcation at work. I hope it doesn't turn out to be true, but folk should be noticing rapid enshittification, shutting down many things we have become dependent on for life, can't depend on much of it lasting much longer.

A useful public relations exercise for Russia now might be to just suddenly be there, to rescue.