Somebody quipped wouldn't it be funny to return them on a Dragon. Embarrassing as that is another alternative is Roscosmos if the Dragon is unavailable (i.e. i

Somebody quipped wouldn't it be funny to return them on a Dragon. Embarrassing as that is another alternative is Roscosmos if the Dragon is unavailable (i.e. it's required for emergency use). Asking the Russians would cause national embarrassment so my money's on the former, but this may actually be a case of politics getting in the way, as, had this been 5 years ago the Russians would have been the go-to partners, they still could be if NASA truly followed realpolitik. Or as the saying goes "cutting your nose off to spite your face" (using a docked Dragon puts those on the station at more risk than just sending up a new Russian Soyuz). Tldr; This means astronauts may now be at an additional risk because of (inter)national politics.