Maxim Ovchinnikov, the first deputy general director of Roscosmos for finance, told reporters that the main article that caused the industry losses was the need to pay employees for non-working days and take preventive measures at enterprises to combat COVID-19.
"We estimate for 2020 about 6-6.5 billion rubles of the negative effect of the pandemic, this will be a net loss of the state corporation and industry enterprises," Ovchinnikov's statement was quoted by Interfax.
Against the background of the spread of the new coronavirus infection, the intensity of the work of space enterprises in the country has noticeably decreased. In less than a year, more than 13 thousand coronavirus infections were recorded among space workers, 78 people died from the infection, including one of the key experts - the general designer of the Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC) Energia, one of the creators of the International Space Station (ISS) Yevgeny Mikrin.
According to the head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin, in 2020 the Russian space industry carried out 17 launches instead of 33 planned. Among the unrealized projects was the launch of the Russian-European ExoMars mission. The cause was the problems caused by the pandemic.
According to the Accounts Chamber, by the end of 2020, Roscosmos became the country's record holder for the number of financial violations, the total amount of which amounted to over 30 billion rubles. The results of the “pandemic year”, however, can be called progress: compared to previous periods, the amount of damage has decreased. For example, in the report of the joint venture it was said that in 2017 the auditors managed to identify 151 facts of violations in the work of the state corporation in the amount of 785.5 billion rubles.