MOSCOW, Oct. 26 Russian President Vladimir Putin promised that closed administrative -territorial entities (ZATOs), where rocket and space industry specialists work, will receive infrastructural development.
At Putin’s meeting with young scientists and specialists in the space industry, one of them asked the president about ZATOs, noting that their “social infrastructure is very weak.”
“At some point in time, the country had no money at all, this is the beginning of the 2000s, when I said that Russia should have its own cosmodrome, a real civilian cosmodrome, everyone thought it was a joke, but then still started doing this,» Putin said.
The President noted that at first Roscosmos proposed a site on the Pacific coast, design work began there, but then it turned out that the weather conditions on the ocean coast were very bad.
“I personally chose this place, they came to the field and looked at this field, where the (Vostochny) cosmodrome is now. I don’t need to be convinced of anything, I completely agree. Moreover, the last time we were recently, with a Korean guest, from North Korea, in addition to the fact that we communicated there, we dealt with the development of the cosmodrome and the city,” Putin explained.
The president also said that he asked his colleagues to pay special attention to this.
«»There are two large enterprises there — Gazprom and Sibur, they are nearby, they are also planning a social program there. I asked them that, together with Tsiolkovsky (ZATO in the Amur region, the city-forming object of which is the Vostochny cosmodrome — ed.) everything was put into one system so that people who live both there and there would have the opportunity to use a single system of socially significant and necessary facilities for people, especially young people. We will definitely do this, 100%. I wanted it to be “quickly,” Putin added.