The Moscow Regional Court has terminated the criminal case against Vitaly Lopota, the former head of RSC Energia. He was facing charges of abusing his authority which allegedly resulted in damages exceeding 40 million rubles during the implementation of the “Sea Launch” project.
“The criminal case has been closed due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution,” the court stated.
The case was filed with the court in October, and the court conducted nearly twenty sessions.
Lopota was charged under Part 2 of Article 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, concerning abuse of official powers, which carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
According to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, the former top manager misused his authority when providing loans to companies involved in the “Sea Launch” venture. Investigators estimated the damages at 41 million rubles.
In August 2014, Lopota was removed from his post as president of RSC Energia, a leading entity in Russia`s space industry. He later took on the role of vice-president at the United Rocket and Space Corporation but soon resigned from that position as well.
The “Sea Launch” project was established in 1995 to operate a sea-based rocket and space complex. It went through bankruptcy and reorganization in 2009. In 2014, the project was suspended after 36 launches due to events in Ukraine, where the Zenit rockets used for launches from the floating spaceport were manufactured.
In 2016, S7 Group acquired the “Sea Launch” project`s assets, which included the Sea Launch Commander assembly and command ship and the Odyssey mobile launch platform.
In March 2020, the complex was relocated to the port of Slavyanka in the Primorye Territory. In late April, S7 head Vladislav Filev announced that the “Sea Launch” project was frozen until better times. Around the same period, it became known that Roscosmos had instructed its enterprises to conduct an economic feasibility study for resuming “Sea Launch” operations with the goal of continuing launches from 2024.
Yury Borisov, who headed Roscosmos from 2022 to 2025, had previously stated while serving as Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation that the sea-based spaceport could resume launches in 2023-2024, but this did not occur.
Rupert Blackwood 
Clement Ashworth