The court in absentia arrested the ex-head of the Khrunichev Center, which produces a rocket, in the case of the theft of 400 million rubles

The Moscow Court in absentia arrested the ex-leader of the State Cosmic Scientific and Production Center named after Khrunichev (part of the State Corporation of Roscosmos) Andrei Kalinovsky in the case of the embezzlement of almost 400 million rubles, before which the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs put him on the wanted list. This was reported by RIA Novosti and TASS.

TASS in his note notes that now Kalinovsky, “according to media reports,” is located abroad. Presumably in Cyprus. Kalinovsky led the center of Khrunichev, which produces the Proton and Angara launch vehicles, from 2014 to 2017. The search card for the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not specify by which article it is wanted.

According to the case file, Kalinovsky introduced the leadership of Roscosmos into misconception and gave orders to his subordinates to conclude contracts for the supply of equipment with Sandwick LLC. In total, eight contracts were concluded in the amount of 393.6 million rubles on the replacement of devices, which were stated, outdated. According to the results of the examination, the investigation came to the conclusion that the repair was not required, and the contracts were unprofitable for the center.

In December 2022, the Ministry of Defense filed two claims to the Khrunichev center in the Moscow Arbitration Court. The amount of one claim is 636.2 million rubles, the second - 390 million rubles. In 2015, the Ministry of Defense recovered 1.8 billion rubles from the Khrunichev center-after the Proton-M accident in 2013. The plaintiff demanded to pay him losses in the amount of the cost of the launch vehicle, the head fairing and other equipment lost as a result of the accident. In 2010, there was also an accident with Proton-M, which destroyed the three Glonass-M satellites, which the rocket was supposed to be brought to orbit. Then the UK opened a case against employees of OJSC RKK Energia, the company launched a rocket made in the Khrunichev center.