MOSCOW, October 10 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Deputy Defense Minister Oleg Ostapenko has been relieved of his duties, the Kremlin press service said Thursday, in a move linked by Russian media to his possible promotion to head the Federal Space Agency.
President Vladimir Putin issued a decree also discharging Col. Gen. Ostapenko from military service, the Kremlin press service said Thursday.
Izvestia newspaper previously reported that Ostapenko could become director of the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) while the agency’s present head, Vladimir Popovkin, has been offered a presidential aide job.
Roscosmos has no information about Popovkin’s possible departure or Ostapenko’s new appointment, its press secretary Anna Vedishcheva told RIA Novosti.
The Russian government is set to radically overhaul the structure of its space industry in a bid to boost efficiency and cut down on the misuse of funds, under plans unveiled Wednesday by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the defense and aerospace sectors.
Speaking to President Vladimir Putin about the plans, Rogozin said a new state corporation will be created to take over manufacturing facilities from the Federal Space Agency, whose prestige has been severely dented in recent years by a string of failed rocket launches.
In August, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev officially reprimanded Popovkin over his agency's performance, although Rogozin said the rebuke was unrelated to a recent failed rocket launch.
An Audit Chamber report in July concluded Roscosmos was ineffective and plagued by poor management and misuse of funds. It also said the agency had only launched 47 percent of Russia's required number of satellites between 2010 and 2012.
