A big salary, luxury cars, and a new dacha—Russia’s space leader lives large

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  In a recent video, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny tackled corruption at Vostochny Spaceport. [credit: YouTube screenshot ]

Russia has a storied and capable space program. And following the space shuttle's retirement in 2011, for nearly a decade, the country has safely and reliably provided a ride for US astronauts to get into space. But that does not mean the country's space corporation, Roscosmos, is not riven with corruption.

A leading critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Alexei Navalny, recently turned his attention toward the country's space program. In an entertaining 13-minute video not unlike those produced by "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" on HBO, Navalny tackles corruption surrounding the construction of the Vostochny Spaceport in far-eastern Russia, as well as the apparently lavish lifestyle of Roscosmos leader Dmitry Rogozin. (The video is in Russian; it was translated for Ars by Robinson Mitchell. The English-language captions are mostly accurate.)

Vostochny troubles

At the outset of the video, Navalny notes that Putin has called for "transparency" surrounding the Vostochny project, which is mired in corruption and has led to a dozen criminal cases. The cost of the project has doubled from 150 billion rubles ($2.3 billion) to 300 billion rubles ($4.7 billion). Then Navalny zeroes in on the primary cause for these problems.

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