The Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) hired several former employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, including the former head of the Mordovian department of the department, Sergei Kozlov. newspaper reported this on Tuesday, March 11, The Kommersant citing sources in the space industry.

It is expected that Kozlov, currently acting as first deputy head of the Center for Operation of Ground and Space Infrastructure, will in the future return to a more familiar job within this structure and move to the position of Deputy General Director for Security. This post is now occupied by Sergei Otrashkevich.

According to the publication, in addition to Kozlov, former head of the Yubileiny-Bolshevo Department of Internal Affairs Gennady Astakhov and former employee of the Eighth Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Nikolai Nikolsky came to Roscosmos. Astakhov was appointed deputy director of the Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering for capital construction and property complex. Nikolsky became a security adviser to the head of Roscosmos Oleg Ostapenko.

Police Major General Sergei Kozlov has headed the Mordovian department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs since 2011. In October 2013, he was relieved of his post by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The reasons for Kozlov's resignation were not officially reported. According to unofficial data, he himself wrote a letter of dismissal after an audit revealed numerous violations in his management.

Gennady Astakhov retired from law enforcement in 2010. He made an unsuccessful attempt to be elected to the Korolev Council of Deputies, after which he went to work at the Center for Combating Corruption in Government Bodies. About Nikolsky, journalists managed to find out that he worked in the currently disbanded eighth department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which was responsible for the protection of sensitive facilities.

Oleg Ostapenko has previously hired former law enforcement officers. In particular, his current press secretary, Irina Zubareva, before joining Roscosmos, was responsible for public relations in the “K” department for about ten years, whose responsibilities include fighting crime in the field of information technology.

Several former police officers got jobs at Roscosmos