Putin insisted during his visit to Vostochny on Wednesday that the wages were not paid because of the subcontractors and said the funds were coming from the federal budget as planned. Earlier this month it was reported that a rocket assembly building was built to the incorrect dimensions and was too small to house Soyuz-2 rockets.
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Russian Federation hopes that the Vostochny space center will help the country reduce its dependence on the Baikonur cosmodrome, leased from Kazakhstan for $115 million per year.
Workers who had been unpaid for months went on strike at Vostochny in the spring and were compensated after appealing directly to Putin.
Putin’s remarks came during a meeting at the cosmodrome with officials from the Roscosmos space agency and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, the government’s space industry czar. “If not, there is no need for rushed work”, Putin said at a conference held at the Vostochny spaceport.
The president said construction was roughly four months behind schedule and thanked Rogozin for overseeing a four-month improvement on the initial eight-month delay.
“Canada needs to continue to stand strongly with the worldwide community pushing back against the bully that is Vladimir Putin”, he said during a campaign stop in Toronto. “We’ll make it by mid-April”, he told Putin during a meeting.
Up to 130 construction companies are involved in the state-funded project as subcontractors, Putin said, adding that they were loosely controlled.
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“I repeat, [April] is not necessary”. “Just work it out and tell me when it will be ready”, he said.
