The Accidental Russophile

CNN and other news services is reporting that Energia, Russia’s largest producer of spacecraft, is being put into emergency administration to “fight off bankruptcy”. Suzy’s RuSpace blog has more of the details, including specifics about a mistranslation that apparently had news services reporting Energia had become bankrupt.

From the RIA Novosti article:

KOROLYOV (Moscow Region), July 31 (RIA Novosti) – Vitaly Lopota, formerly first vice president of the Energia space corporation and its chief designer, has been appointed the company’s new president.

Earlier, Energia’s shareholders voted to dismiss Nikolai Sevastyanov from the post by a 97% majority, and voted 97.5% in favor of Lopota, 57.

The decision to suspend Sevastyanov’s mandate was made in late June by the board of directors of state-controlled Energia, which designs Soyuz piloted spacecraft and Progress booster rockets, launches communications satellites, and operates the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS).

Nikolai Moiseyev, Energia’s board chairman, said earlier that Sevastyanov was to blame for taking uncoordinated measures with regard to a number of projects, including international projects and manned flights.

The Energia chief has been repeatedly criticized, primarily for his daring projects relating to lunar exploration, branded “lunacy” by the Space Agency, which moved to restrict his powers.

The newly elected president has already pledged to form an anti-crisis management in the corporation to sort things out. “The first thing we must do is introduce an anti-crisis management team,” Vitaly Lopota said. “Because the course which the corporation has been on for the past two years [was leading] to bankruptcy instead of prosperity.”