Space centre to be probed over graft
MOSCOW: Russian investigators said yesterday they had opened two criminal cases into the management of a company involved in building the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a space centre in the country’s far East.
The announcement came less than two weeks after President Vladimir Putin complained about corruption at the facility and called for further investigation.
Construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome began in January 2011, part of a plan for Russia to reduce its dependency on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which Russia leases from the former Soviet republic for space operations.
However, Mr Putin told government officials earlier this month he was dismayed by the level of graft there.
“Hundreds of millions have been stolen. Hundreds of millions. Several dozen criminal cases have already been initiated. There have already been court decisions, people are in prison,” the Russian president said.
His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said later that 11 billion roubles (5.2 billion baht) of a total 91 billion roubles allocated to the project had been stolen.
Investigators said yesterday they were looking into allegations that fraudulent financial documents had led to the theft of 240 million roubles between November 2018 and May 2019.
Top officials at the cosmodrome said they were in control of the situation and that any violations would immediately be passed to law-enforcement officers, the RIA news agency reported.
The Vostochny Cosmodrome, which in Russian means “Eastern”, is situated in the Amur region on the border with China.