This idea has been round for a long time as a way to "power" a Space Elevator on both the Earth and the Moon.
If we had true World Leaders, they would Champion Solar from Space and then lead the World toward a safe new future by WORKING TOGETHER; these books explain how:

The High Frontier by Gerard K. O'Neill, Colonies In Space by A. Heppenheim­er. The Third Industrial Revolution by G. Harry Stine The Space Enterprise by Philip Robert Harris Mining the Sky by John S. Lewis

Lasers used in propulsion have been proposed since the 60's. You can find a NASA article propelling a shuttle shaped vehicle receiving multiple laser beams to create thrust. Here is an actual use of a laser to propel and object. http://www.lightcrafttechnologies.com/technology.html LightCraft Launch Oct 2000 - laserbeam powered propulsion Uploaded on Jun 27, 2007 Prior to liftoff, a jet of compressed air is used to spin the lightcraft to about 10,000 revolutions per minute (RPMs). The spin is needed to stabilize the craft gyroscopically.

That was invented long time ago by Harrop in the united states and I independently invented too. Its in my patent notebooks.

I first came across this idea in the 1992 book The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps, by Marshall Savage. (Wonder if and when it was translated to Russian) The light craft (LTI mentioned above) has to be the coolest implementation to date (despite the tiny altitude yet reached). I've wondered for some time if a horizontal application of a laser powered LTI system was possible with an onboard laser to create a "fuel less" jet engine.

50 years from now some US-based company will dust off the Ruskie's plans, build a rocket out of it and watch it fail on a launch pad in Virginia. Oh wait, that happened already?

Guys, the Russians aren't claiming they just invented laser propulsion. Read it again. They're saying their technology addresses inefficiencies in past designs.

Gadgeteer, look at the first sentence of the article: "Russian scientists have proposed a novel way to accelerate a spaceship while in flight – firing a ground-based laser up its backside." What the other posters are pointing out is it's not novel, it's an old idea. No, the Russians aren't claiming it's a new idea, but are questioning the author's use of the term "novel."

@ Mike DaBomb Prove that it was a problem with the engine parts that came from Russia.

I think you would get greater use by using the laser to heat hydrogen reaction mass.

Not so novel, as this has been detailed many times. My first exposure was in Dean Ing's book, "The Big Lifters", in 1988.
He combined laser enhanced propulsion with a supersonic bullet train as the launch mechanism. It was a clever solution and a great little read.