Putin fires head of Russian space agency in huge shake-up

Head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency Dmitry Rogozin (Yuri Kochetkov/AP)

Vladimir Putin has fired Dmitry Rogozin, the outspoken and controversial head of the Russian space agency.

Mr Rogozin had led the space agency for five years. During that time, he became well known as one of the loudest voices among the Russian establishment.

He regularly used his Twitter account to comment on Russia’s space programme and its place in the world, for instance, and those posts came more often in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Those tweets led to fights with people including Elon Musk, with the two jousting on Twitter over Mr Putin.

The most recent flare-up between Mr Rogozin and the US came last week, after Roscosmos’s official Telegram channel posted pictures of cosmonauts alongside pro-Russian propaganda. Nasa rebuked Russia for “using the International Space Station for political purposes to support its war against Ukraine” – and Mr Rogozin responded that Russia would use the space station for anything it “considers necessary and useful”.

Roscosmos will now be run by Yury Borisov, a deputy prime minister who has a historic interest in defence. Mr Borisov’s appointment could in part be in recognition of the increasingly military aspect of the Russian space agency.

Mr Rogozin’s dismissal was announced on the Kremlin website in a statement that gave no indication of why Mr Putin had made the decision.