Russian President Vladimir Putin asked Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to “think again” about creating a Ministry of Space. reports this RIA Novosti .

At a meeting on the development of the space industry, Putin noted that “almost everything in it belongs to the state, or the state has a controlling stake.” First of all, according to the president, the space department needs to be “properly staffed.”

Earlier, the head of Roscosmos, Vladimir Popovkin, asked to increase the number of agency employees, to equate their salaries to ministerial ones and to introduce a 50 percent bonus for civil servants involved in space activities. Popovkin drew attention to the fact that in 1991, when Roscosmos was created, it included four enterprises and 250 employees. Today, according to Popovkin, the agency has 93 enterprises and 191 employees.

Popovkin had previously asked for an increase in Roscosmos staff. In December 2012, he proposed expanding the staff to 450 people. However, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Labor gave negative opinions on Popovkin’s proposal, which was supported by Rogozin.

In November 2012, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev demanded reform of Roscosmos. The first reform option was to transform the agency into a state corporation. Popovkin considered this option optimal, citing Rosatom as an example. However, the working group on reforming the space industry rejected it. The other two options proposed at that time suggested a compromise between the status of a state corporation and a state agency (the current status of Roskomos) or the creation of a large closed joint-stock company Kosmoprom.

Putin proposed creating a Ministry of Space