In December, a state-aligned newspaper
published a devastating essay on the performance of Roscosmos since Rogozin took over as its leader in May 2018. It characterized a wasteful, increasingly decrepit enterprise where almost no money is being invested into the present or future. Instead, the focus seems to be providing high-paying jobs for a handful of technocrats, with Rogozin at the top.
The article cited "serious leadership weakness" at Roscosmos and said the country's once glorious space program is "rotting from within."
For all of this, however, Rogozin's salary has increased substantially during his time at Roscosmos. His salary information comes from Transparency International and is based on conversion rates at the beginning of each year. During the most recent year for which salary data is available, 2020, Rogozin
was paid $1.3 million—and this does not include perks of the job, such as four vehicles, real estate holdings, spousal pay, and possibly off-the-books income. Before his imprisonment, Russian critic Alexei Navalny
released an investigation of Rogozin and the corruption at Roscosmos that delves into some of these benefits.
Rogozin has seen a stunning rise in his fortunes since coming to Roscosmos. Before his move, he earned about $100,000 per year as deputy chairman in the Russian government. In 2018, his salary jumped to $513,000, and in 2019, it went up to $639,000.
By way of comparison, NASA, which has a budget several times larger than that of Roscosmos, pays Administrator Bill Nelson an annual salary of $185,100.
Rogozin has no special qualifications to lead Roscosmos that might justify such a salary. Like the author of this article, Rogozin graduated from journalism school. (Hey, I like space, too. But I'm not sure I'm qualified to lead a multi-faceted space corporation.) However, Rogozin does have one ace in the hole—he is a close and faithful political ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
The really depressing aspect of this is that Russia's once remarkable space program is now running on fumes. It has excellent engineers and technicians but pays them poorly. There
are no funds to clean up or improve degraded facilities. But for those at the top of the rocket? Life is sweet.