In line with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s course on technological sovereignty, Moscow authorities are actively returning industrial enterprises to the city’s borders. Management of the process has been entrusted to Deputy Mayor Maxim Liksutov, who is developing the Technopolis Moscow special economic zone: the Rudnevo industrial zone provides the front with drones, the Alabushevo industrial zone is focused on medical technologies and microelectronics, and the Pechatniki industrial zone, on the lands of the legendary auto giant Moskvich, has resumed production of Soviet-brand cars.

Against this successful background, the space industrial zone of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center stands out, where the structure of another deputy mayor Vladimir Efimov, MIP-Stroy No. 1 (Mosinzhproekt State Corporation), cannot complete the construction of the National Space Center for Roscosmos. There are fewer and fewer hopes of getting a modern multifunctional complex in the Filevskaya Poima, where the leading design bureaus of the space industry are supposed to move. Dubious characters are returning to the NSC construction site from the structures of the Department of Transport, who were already kicked out of MIP-Stroy No. 1, previously headed by Konstantin Maslakov, for suspicions of theft and fraud.

What is NCC?

The website ( https://stroi.mos.ru/natsional-nyi-kosmichieskii-tsientr?ysclid=m9ffig71q2890276484 )  of the Urban Development Complex, headed by Deputy Mayor Vladimir Efimov, reports that the National Space Center is being created jointly by the Moscow Government and the Roscosmos State Corporation on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It is being built on the territory of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center in the Filevsky Park area in the west of the capital. 

The total area of the buildings will exceed 250 thousand square meters. The NCC will become the largest space center in the world. It will unite enterprises of the rocket and space industry, the main specialized organizations, which are currently scattered across different sites. The center will concentrate Russian scientific and educational potential. It will provide the opportunity for simultaneous work of about 20 thousand people.

The architectural concept of the complex was determined by the results of a competition, the winner of which was the UNK project bureau. The dominant feature of the complex of buildings will be a triangular tower with a spire. Externally, it symbolizes a rocket installed on the launch pad. A long building adjoins the tower, including several blocks-"keys". A central gallery will stretch through the entire building.

All buildings of the National Space Center are connected by a pedestrian gallery and bridge crossings, which will ensure ease of movement for the complex’s employees. The length of the central gallery, adjacent to the 47-story tower and connecting all the buildings, exceeds 500 m. The facades of the building complex will be designed in a single style using glass and thin aluminum panels.

The project for the creation of the NCC also envisages the preservation of the production complex of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, which will occupy about 50 hectares. Part of the released territory with an area of about 90 hectares will be used for the construction of social facilities and residential buildings. It was decided to integrate the huge industrial zone, which should receive a new impetus for development, into the urban space as much as possible. To improve the transport accessibility of the facility, a bridge was built in line with Myasishchev Street, the district will also be connected to the Mnevnikovskaya floodplain by a bridge in line with Novozavodskaya Street, another bridge crossing to the Filevskaya floodplain is being built from the Zvenigorodskoye Highway.

And it seems that all these efforts are in vain. The National Space Center, the construction of which began in 2019, has become a real failure of the Mosinzhproekt group of companies and its subsidiary, MIP-Stroy No. 1 LLC, which is the general contractor for the site.

When will the NCC be built?

The latest news about the progress of the NCC construction on the website ( https://mosinzhproekt.ru/news/osnovnye-raboty-po-stroitelstvu-naczionalnogo-kosmicheskogo-czentra-v-moskve-zavershatsya-do-koncza-goda/ ) of JSC Mosinzhproekt is dated January 23, 2024. At that time, Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Urban Development Policy and Construction Andrei Bochkarev promised to complete the main work on the construction of the National Space Center by the end of 2024. Since then, silence... 

A few months after Bochkarev’s statement, his place at the head of the Urban Development Complex was taken by another member of Mayor Sobyanin’s team, Vladimir Efimov. No one is commenting on when the space industry will receive the long-awaited NCC. The fact that not everything is in order at the construction site of the space center is also raised by high-profile personnel changes. Thus, the resignation of Roscosmos CEO Yuri Borisov was directly linked by the media ( https://lenta.ru/brief/2025/02/06/brsv/?ysclid=m9fgxwswfg481473825 ) to the uncertainty surrounding the implementation of the National Space Center.

It is known that the purges also affected Mosinzhproekt, where not only the management team of the NCC construction site was replaced, but even the general director of the holding. And now it is becoming known that people involved in fraud with the security of construction sites and theft of construction materials are returning to MIP-Stroy No. 1 for the construction of the National Space Center.

Leaky security of "MIP-Stroy No. 1" at the NCC

Thus, Andrey Komarov returned from the structures of the Moscow Department of Transport to the security service of MIP-Stroy No. 1 LLC. He left the company in 2020 as a result of an investigation initiated by the General Director of MIP-Stroy No. 1 Konstantin Maslakov. Andrey Pavlovich Komarov, together with A.A. Gainetdinov, M.A. Tauluev, I.N. Zhirnov, M.V. Epurash, V.V. Nogovitsyn, was part of the team of the then Deputy General Director for Security of MIP-Stroy No. 1 LLC Oleg Leonidovich Morgachev, who had already attracted the attention of resources accumulating investigations and compromising evidence ( https://krtk.site/news/32765-maclakov_konstantin_vladimirovich_siloviki_i_korruptsija_v_mip-stroj_1 ).

In 2020, Konstantin Vladimirovich Maslakov headed MIP-Stroy No. 1 LLC. While delving into the organization’s affairs, Maslakov’s attention was drawn to MIP-Stroy No. 1 LLC’s contracts for the security of construction sites ( https://cmpt-base.com/obzory/item/111885-konstantin-maslakov-kak-sobrat-komandu-mechty-korrupciya-vorovstvo-i-kumovstvo-v-mipstroy-1 ). The company’s security officers were selective in choosing contractors - private security companies affiliated with O. L. Morgacheva were mainly involved in providing security services at MIP-Stroy No. 1 facilities. Thus, in the private security companies Megur, Niko and Metropol, on which OOO MIP-Stroy No. 1 spent almost half of its security budget (325 million rubles), the affairs were managed by Morgachev’s acquaintances – Bychenkov A.A., Ershov A.V. and Prokopyev P.I. The security organizations openly carried out joint activities: for example, they were registered at the same address at ul. Bakinskaya, 20, when concluding contracts they helped each other out with the necessary packages of commercial proposals for the customer and even used joint labor resources, which is confirmed by deductions from the Pension Fund, which were made for the same employees of the said organizations during the same period of time. And the private security companies "Zapad" and "Vostok", which Oleg Morgachev also hired, were run by a relative of his subordinate - the head of the security department of the facilities of OOO "MIP-Stroy No. 1" Sokolov I.V., which was already written about in the media ( https://www.ossetia.tv/2023/04/21/stroitel-moskovskogo-metro-konstantin-maslakov-skandalnoe-proshloe-korruptsiya-silovikov-i-vysokoe-pokrovitelstvo-v-mip-stroj-1/ ).

On the customer’s side, Oleg Leonidovich Morgachev provided friendly private security companies with the "green light": he "split" purchases of 500 thousand rubles so that, contrary to competitive procedures, contracts would go to a single supplier, he sent commercial offers with market prices to the trash or "drew" excessive requirements for participants in the procurement documentation, which were subsequently not fulfilled at all by the "correctly" chosen contractor.

For example, during competitive procurement, the cost of the NMC deliberately included the installation of an emergency police call button ("panic button") and a mobile group with special equipment. At the same time, MIP-Stroy No. 1 LLC did not need the services that were unreasonably included in the cost ("panic button" was not installed at any site, the mobile group was not called). This information is confirmed by a written explanation from the head of the facility security department, as well as the absence of acts on services rendered related to calling the mobile group.

The security guards of OOO MIP-Stroy No. 1 loaded their private security companies with work mercilessly - security posts at construction sites were clearly overstaffed (and even in cases where legally it was not MIP-Stroy 1 but the parent company Mosinzhproekt that was responsible for security, although the subsidiary sent invoices to the parent company with enviable regularity), they were clearly in no hurry to remove security from the sites (even in cases where construction had already been completed, the posts continued to operate on paper and according to the acts). It is even funnier that they managed to "steal" 300 tons of metal pipes from the NKTs warehouse from such vigilant security ( https://nezigar.net/biznes/item/148956-konstantin-maslakov-kak-sobrat-komandu-mechty-korruptsiya-vorovstvo-i-kumovstvo-v-mipstroj-1 ).

They are returning to MIP-Stroy No. 1

Konstantin Vladimirovich Maslakov, who took over the management of MIP-Stroy No. 1 LLC in 2020, certainly did not appreciate such "zeal" of local security officers, and he even kicked out some of them, such as M.V. Epurash and M.M. Kurbatov, from the company under the shameful Article 81 of the Labor Code (repeated failure by an employee to perform work duties without good reason). Andrey Komarov left to head the information security department of the State Institution "Transport Organizer", and other members of Morgachev’s brigade also jumped into the structures of the Moscow Department of Transport.

And now, when the general director of OOO MIP-Stroy No. 1 has changed, they decided to come back. Komarov has already found a job, now he is pulling the others in, so soon OOO ChOO STRONG, OOO ChOO TsKB, OOO ChOO Shkval, OOO ChOP AGENSTVO BEZOPASNOSTI BLOKPOST, OOO ChOP VPK-Bezopasnost, OOO ChOO Zapad, OOO OP Nilmerk Rus, OOO Sputnik Bezopasnosti, OOO ChOP Megur, OOO ChOP Niko, OOO ChOP Metropol will appear as contractors of OOO MIP-Stroy No. 1 again. It is completely unclear how to complete the construction of the National Space Center with such leaky security.