Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed Dmitry Bakanov as the new director general of Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos. Mr Bakanov takes over from Yury Borisov, who led Roscosmos since 2022.
Before this role, Bakanov served as deputy minister of transport. He was the head of the Gonets satellite system company from 2011 to 2019 before becoming deputy minister of transport.
Borisov was appointed to head Roscosmos in July 2022. Prior to that, he served as deputy prime minister overseeing the defense industry.
Bakanov was born in Leninsk (today the city of Baikonur) of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic on October 7, 1985. In 2007, he graduated from the St. Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance with a degree in economics.
Bakanov headed the Gonets Satellite System company, the unified operator of Roscosmos’ communications, broadcast and retransmission systems, from 2011 to 2019, when he joined the Russian Transport Ministry as director of its digital transformation department. He became deputy transport minister in 2022.