Roscosmos, undermined by corruption, is struggling to make Vostochny a viable alternative to Baikonur despite more than €8 billion in investment.
The Russian space program, a legacy of the Soviet era, is now facing systemic problems. The Vostochny Cosmodrome, a flagship project intended to embody a new technological and geographical autonomy, has been undermined by corruption, malpractice, and ineffective management. Despite a budget of more than €8 billion, the site remains underutilized, with only five successful launches in five years. Meanwhile, Russia continues to rely on the Baikonur site in Kazakhstan for its most sensitive missions. The goal of space sovereignty therefore remains unachieved, illustrating the profound limitations of Roscosmos.
Endemic corruption surrounding the Vostochny project
The Vostochny Cosmodrome, located in the Amur Oblast in eastern Russia, was supposed to embody a revival of the Russian space program, far from its dependence on Baikonur. But the reality has been marked by mismanagement, illustrated by massive embezzlement.
The total cost of the site exceeded €8 billion, with minimal returns: only five launches between 2016 and 2019. Among the irregularities found, the construction of the first launch pad was delayed by the use of poor-quality concrete, forcing the demolition and reconstruction of a large part of the structures.
Russian audit services have acknowledged that the excessive secrecy surrounding state projects encourages embezzlement. To date, more than 100 officials involved in the management of Vostochny have been prosecuted for corruption. The most common types of fraud involve overstating the number of employees (fictitious employees or falsified timesheets), overpriced purchases, and non-existent supplies that were nevertheless paid for.
President Vladimir Putin, although aware of and frustrated by these abuses, has been unable to bring about real change: the replacements for the first officials dismissed quickly engaged in the same fraudulent practices.
Declining technical performance
Beyond issues of corruption, Roscosmos suffers from structural performance problems. The company, created in 1992 to replace the Soviet organization, employs around 250,000 people, three times more than NASA, with an annual budget equivalent to €2.75 billion.
This disproportion reveals widespread inefficiency. Roscosmos is unable to attract and retain qualified engineers due to uncompetitive salaries and unattractive working conditions. Over the past 30 years, the quality of scientific personnel has declined while the average age has increased.
Delays, partial or total launch failures, and poor equipment maintenance reflect a growing technical deficit. For example, the second launch at Vostochny in 2017 failed. Incidents such as this severely undermine Russia’s international credibility in the commercial launch services sector.
A weakened geopolitical strategy
The creation of the Vostochny Cosmodrome also had a strategic dimension. After Kazakhstan gained independence in 1991, Russia continued to use Baikonur under an annual lease of €115 million, plus approximately €45 million in maintenance costs.
However, growing demands from Kazakhstan, particularly in terms of royalties and security, prompted Moscow to seek to reduce its dependence. By threatening to leave Baikonur, Russia forced Kazakhstan to reconsider its financial ambitions.
The reality, however, is less favorable: due to a lack of reliability and sufficient capacity, Vostochny has not been able to relocate most of the launches. In 2020, instead of the planned 50%, less than 15% of Russian launches took place at Vostochny. Baikonur therefore remains indispensable, particularly for manned missions and geostationary satellites.
This dependence on foreign territory weakens Russia’s geopolitical position, especially as Western sanctions linked to the war in Ukraine have restricted access to international markets for commercial launches. Many foreign customers have stopped using Russian services, further reducing Roscosmos’ revenues.
An economic model that is not viable without foreign customers
The Vostochny project was intended to eventually finance itself through sales of launches to foreign customers. However, diplomatic tensions, economic sanctions, and loss of confidence in Russian infrastructure have destroyed the expected profitability.
By way of comparison, SpaceX charges around $60 million for a Falcon 9 launch, while offering proven reliability and a full order book. In contrast, Roscosmos’ few remaining customers are mainly Russian or from countries allied with Moscow.
Without opening up to international customers, Vostochny remains an underutilized center, costing several hundred million euros a year to maintain. Even the addition of a second launch pad, currently under construction, has failed to revive commercial interest in the site.
Russian experts themselves acknowledge that the secrecy surrounding public projects undermines transparency and therefore the confidence needed to attract international investors or operators. The lack of accounting standards, logistical transparency, and cooperation with foreign agencies prevents any ramp-up.
A compromised vision of Russian space autonomy
Despite promising beginnings, the revival of the Russian space program by Vostochny illustrates the limitations of the state model based on centralized, unresponsive governance that is prone to corruption. In comparison, Western space programs, which are often hybrid (public/private), have managed to combine technological competitiveness and economic flexibility.
Russia’s strategic priority for autonomy in the space sector is being undermined by its inability to break free from the rentier mentality inherited from the USSR. Underinvestment in innovation, the persistence of opaque practices, and the lack of a competitive domestic market are severely hampering modernization.
Until Roscosmos thoroughly reforms its governance, recruitment criteria, and management methods, Russia will remain on the sidelines of global developments in the space sector. The case of Vostochny is a concrete illustration of this: a symbolic construction project that has become structurally flawed and incapable of fulfilling the country’s ambitions.
War Wings Daily is an independant magazine.