A senior official from Russia's Roskosmos space agency, Yury Yaskin, has apparently fled Russia in the midst of audits and inspections of the satellite and ballistic-missile research center that he headed.
Media reports in Russia say that Yaskin had been sent abroad by Roskosmos for official business in April and has not returned.
Officials at Roskosmos' Research Institute for Space Technology (NIIKP) confirmed that Yaskin, the center's director-general, tendered his resignation from the post after he had gone abroad.
Yaskin had worked on and off at the research institute since 1993 and became its director-general in 2012.
Russian officials have launched 14 separate audits and investigations at the institute since the start of 2019.
There was no immediate confirmation about Yaskin's current whereabouts. But Russia's Kommersant newspaper reports that he had been seen recently in Greece.
Senior Space Official Said To Have Fled Russia Amid Audits
A Soyuz spacecraft launches the Kanopus weather satellite at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia on December 27.