In a surprise announcement on February 6, the Russian government reported that it was relieving the head of Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency, Yuri Borisov, and appointing in this place the 39-year old Deputy Administrator of the Transportation Ministry, Dmitry Bakanov.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the government was not concerned with the work Borisov was doing, but that it was time for a change. “The rotation is taking place, the corporation needs to develop dynamically,” said Peskov. There were, however, a number of concerns expressed during the period in which Borisov took over in 2022. The failure of the landing of Luna-25 on the Moon, and the cost overruns of the new National Space Center have been an ongoing cause of concern. There is also a general feeling that Russia’s role in space has declined through the years, and that it should be brought back to its former position, at the top of the group of nations involved in space.
Bakanov’s educational background is in finance and economics. He wrote his thesis on “The Growth of National Competitiveness As a Factor in Ensuring Russia’s Economic Security.” Bakanov was born in Leninsk, the city in Kazakhstan which houses the Baikonur space facility. He worked in a leading Russian IT company specializing in the digital transformation of strategic sectors of the Russian economy. He also headed up the company ‘Satellite System Gonets,” the operator for Roscosmos of its communications and relay system built on the basis of low-orbit spacecraft. In 2013, he contributed to the initiation of a criminal case against the ex-head of the company for making fictitious payments. One of his main tasks will be the expansion of the Russian orbital group, and the transition to serial production of satellites.
