US representatives have refrained from participating in the joint international isolation experiment SIRIUS with Russia in 2023, the director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for Bio-Medical Problems (IBMP), Oleg Orlov, told a news conference on Tuesday.

"We are to go ahead with the SIRIUS program in November. We are starting a comprehensive experiment - a year-long isolation of the SIRIUS crew. The project was conceived as a joint program with NASA. There missions are to be accomplished. The current political situation has caused adjustments to these plans. Our US counterparts have not quitted the project. They preferred to refrain from participation. However, we continue to work with a wide range of partners and expect the experiment to continue as an international one," Orlov said.

The annual SIRIUS-2023 isolation experiment will take place in Moscow at the RAS IBMP in 2023-2024.