"With the aim of pulling Energia out of its financial crisis, the agency has nominated Nikolai Sevastianov, who has extensive experience in putting space and other major projects into practice, and successfully governing high-technology companies in modern market conditions, as president of the corporation," the space agency said in a news release on Wednesday.

The official reason for the change is the fact that Energia suffers from a continuously deteriorating financial position.

"In the past three years the RKK Energiya manufacturing all the national manned spacecraft and cargo supply vehicles, is loss-making, and its credit debt is growing. It is necessary to take urgent measures to preserve the corporation's leading role and ensure its normal financing," Roskosmos spokesman Vyacheslav Davidenko told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

However critics of the change say that this is a hypocritical position for the government, as the Agency's main customer, has been starving the agency of funds by paying low prices for its services as well as paying late, and not properly supporting Semyonov's commercial ventures.

Energia provides much of the hardware for Russia's human spaceflight program, including space station modules, as well as the Soyuz and Progress spaceships used to resupply the space station.

Sevastianov used to work for Semyonov, and was picked by him to head a spin-off company to commercialize communications satellites built by Energia.

The change in personnel comes as negotiations with NASA continue to guarantee US access for seats on the Soyuz on flights betweeen Earth and the space station.

"For the purpose of securing the implementation of the uniform state policy towards the Energiya RKK the Federal Space Agency has proposed to its shareholders - physical and legal persons to consolidate shares with the state package for voting at the annual general shareholders' meeting," Roskosmos said.

"The annual shareholders' meeting of the Energiya RKK is scheduled for May 28," the Roskosmos spokesman specified.

The Space Agency sources also said, "A share package constituting 38.22 percent of the RKK authorised capital is now property of the Russian Federation."

Yuri Semenov has been heading the Energiya RKK since 1991.

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Russian Federal Space Agency
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