The Space Fellowship website notes that Russia is planning to set up an orbiting platform from which to stage manned missions to the moon and Mars.

“After 2020, Russia plans to create and put into orbit a near-Earth experimental manned complex to ensure transport operations to the Moon and Mars,” Anatoly Perminov said.

This has certain similarities to some original NASA lunar mission plans, which was to build up an infrastructure in orbit that would stage missions outwards, rather than launching the whole kit from the surface.