MOSCOW. Jan 23 (Interfax) - The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) has dismissed Mikhail Sapego, the general director and general designer of the St. Petersburg-based design bureau Arsenal, Kommersant reported with reference to a Roscosmos source.
Sapego had tendered his voluntary resignation to Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin on January 11, the source said. Sapego himself confirmed this information to the newspaper. His resignation was accepted as early as the next day, January 12.
However, Kommersant suggested that his resignation was not wholly voluntary.
A Roscosmos commission conducted an unscheduled inspection at Arsenal in the fall of 2012.
"After the commission completed its work, the inspectors had some questions for Sapego. They were particularly concerned about the fact that, since the fall of 2009, he had been not only the board director of the Arsenal engineering plant but also led the design bureau with the same name," the Roscosmos source said.
Such combination could have led to a conflict of interest, as the plant carries out the design bureau's projects. "We could not fully rule out his interest and therefore recommended that he be dismissed as the head of the design bureau," the source said.
The Arsenal design bureau officially declined to disclose the results of the 2012 inspection for secrecy reasons. The Arsenal plant's press service did not return telephone calls from Kommersant.
The Arsenal design bureau, which is under Roscosmos's jurisdiction, is a leading Russian designer and manufacturer of space equipment and naval artillery and rocket systems.