Russian Government To Discuss Options for Restructuring Roscosmos

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has revealed that the Russian government will hold a conference on November 26 to discuss various ways to restructure Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos.

In December 2011, then-Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin put Rogozin in charge of identifying the problems in Russia’s space industry that led to an unusual number of launch failures and then recommending solutions.   At the time, Dmitry Medvedev was Russia’s President.  Putin and Medvedev have switched jobs since then, but Rogozin continues in his post as Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Russia’s defense, nuclear and space sectors.

Rogozin told Russia’s news agency, Itar-Tass, that the November 26 meeting will be in Medvedev’s office and he will report on the findings of three different groups on how to reorganize Roscosmos.   Rogozin said that Roscosmos itself has proposed reorganizing itself as a “public corporation” similar to Rosatom, while “[o]thers took a different look … and suggested borrowing from international experience.”

The Russian government has a lot on its mind these days apart from the space program.   Russian President Putin fired his defense minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, on Tuesday.   Serdyukov was part of Putin’s inner circle and appointed defense chief in 2007.   Several of his subordinates are being investigated for fraud and corruption, the public reason for his dismissal, but Russia’s RIA Novosti cites political infighting between Serdyukov and other government officials, including Rogozin, as the real cause.  Putin quickly appointed Sergei Shoigu as the new defense minister.  He is a former Emergency Situations Minister and current Moscow Region governor, according to RIA Novosti.