Russia has a brand new house chief.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed Yuri Borisov after 2.5 years in command of the nation’s house company Roscosmos, The Moscow Instances reported today (Feb. 6).
His substitute is 39-year-old Dmitry Bakanov, who most lately served as Russia’s deputy transport minister and led the state-backed Gonets satellite tv for pc communications system from 2011 to 2019.
Borisov, 68, took Roscosmos’ reins from the blustery Dmitry Rogozin in July 2022, 5 months after Russia invaded Ukraine. Lots of Russia’s former house companions lower or diminished their ties with the nation within the wake of that ongoing invasion, complicating Russia’s launch enterprise and exploration plans.
Associated: Roscosmos: Russia’s house company
Borisov’s comparatively transient tenure was marked by turbulence and disappointment, together with the August 2023 failure of Luna 25, the primary moon mission in trendy Russian historical past. (The newest moon effort had been Luna 24, launched by the Soviet Union in 1976.)
Roscosmos “additionally confronted corruption scandals, the lack of satellites and different spacecraft, in addition to an absence of innovation” below Borisov, in line with The Moscow Instances, which is an unbiased newspaper based mostly in Amsterdam.
Nonetheless, Russian officers framed Borisov’s ouster as a part of a “deliberate rotation.”
“The company wants dynamic improvement, which is why these personnel modifications are going down,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov instructed reporters, in line with The Moscow Instances, which additionally offered the English translation.
Roscosmos was not Borisov’s first authorities gig. He was within the Soviet-Russian military for 20 years, for instance, and later served as Deputy Minister of Defence in addition to Deputy Prime Minister for Defence and Area Trade.