Space Adventures makes news

This news item via Space Today: MosNews is reporting from Russia that Space Adventures is partnering with Pradea (Ansari family's - yes, that Ansari - Texas-based VC firm) and Roskosmos (the Russian Federal Space Agency) to design a build a sub-orbital passenger system. Myasishchev Design Bureau will design and build the vehicles. Here's SA's own press relesase

Frankly, I don't get it. So here are some wild speculations:

1. Was this the plan all along? Start with operating tours until you have enough credibility to fund vehicle development, and then switch from a service to a product strategy?

2. The Russian technology vendors aren't as cheap as they were just a few years ago anymore. They're likely to be more expensive then the Armadillo, Masten, and Rocktplane vehicles (just a guess, I don't have real data). So SA probably thinks that they've built enough of a brand name that they can charge a premium over these latter companies and get away with it, or that those others will never fly at all.....

3. Is this an end-run around ITAR? If so, the shipbuilders in this country should be screaming bloody murder to their elective representatives - that a US VC fund and a US operator should be investing in Russian companies instead of supporting the homegrown builders that are struggling for funding is a disgrace and a strategic blunder by the US Government.

4. By explicitly stating that none of the "consortium members" will actually operte the ships but sell them to other operators, is SA tacitly admitting the difficulty of the former business model? Or are they not "consortium members" in that sense?

Additional reporting by MSNBC, via Space.com and Clark Lindsey @ Space Transportation News, which lists even more reporting by CBS and CNet