The head of the State Corporation "Roscosmos" Dmitry Rogozin on Tuesday, October 19, ordered the change of the general contractor for the construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome, as well as the creation of a subordinate construction department, which will become the new general contractor.
In addition, as RIA Novosti notes with reference to a source, the head offices of the operator of the Russian cosmodromes CENKI and the Directorate of the Vostochny cosmodrome will be moved from Moscow to Tsiolkovsky. It is noted that during the meeting held at the department on Tuesday, the personnel composition and structure of the construction management of the CENKI were considered, which Roscosmos was dissatisfied with.
After moving offices, employees of enterprises will be located in close proximity to construction sites, which will contribute to the development of local infrastructure, increase the collection of tax deductions to the local budget.
There have been no official comments from the state corporation at the moment.
In June, the CEO of Respect-SM, Alik Aleksanyan, was accused of fraud for 60 million rubles during the construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome and imprisoned.
Aleksanyan pleads not guilty to fraud during construction and installation work at the cosmodrome. His deputy, whose criminal case is also connected with embezzlement during the construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome, was also arrested.
In February 2020, the court of the city of Zheleznogorsk, Krasnoyarsk Territory, found guilty four defendants in a criminal case of embezzlement of 25 million rubles during the construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome.
In October, Roman Bobkov, the former director of the Vostochny Space Center, and Vladimir Zhuk, the chief engineer of the CENKI, were arrested. The first was suspected of incitement to abuse of official powers and official forgery, and the second was accused of abuse of official powers during the construction of the first stage of the Vostochny.
In January 2019, it was reported that the completion date of the Vostochny cosmodrome was postponed due to difficulties with choosing the main contractor. Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed to ensure the availability of a launch complex for a superheavy class of missiles no later than 2023 and stressed that "it is impossible to go beyond 2023."
In September of the same year, Putin held a meeting on the infrastructure of the cosmodrome, during which he demanded, among other things, to meet the deadlines and take a more responsible attitude to work. Putin stressed that there were many issues around Vostochny that required his personal intervention.
In addition, in November, the head of state pointed out the mess during the construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome. According to him, those involved "steal hundreds of millions", despite criminal cases and prison sentences.
In early December 2019, the CEO of an organization working at one of the Vostochny facilities was sentenced to 11 years in a penal colony — a man stole more than 660 million rubles.
