Shareholders will gather Saturday to elect a president to a new term of five years, Roskosmos, the Russian space agency said.

Roskosmos said the corporation has been unprofitable since 2002 and has put up Nickolay Sevastianov, the director general of the joint-stock company Gascom, as the candidate for Energia's presidency.

The nomination of Sevastianov was endorsed by state-owned bodies controlling 38.22 percent of the corporation's stocks, as well as other shareholders consolidating 12.6 percent, according to Roskosmos.

Boris Gromov, the governor of the Moscow region, as well cosmonauts and the corporation's technical management, have appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to support the nomination of Yuriy Semenov, Energia's functioning president and designer general.

Semenov has been heading Energia for almost 20 years.

Energia is a Russian manufacturer of spacecraft and space station components. Its products have included the Energia launcher, the Progress spacecraft and the R-7 rocket, the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile.

Gascom is involved in the development of space systems and implementation of telecommunications and television projects.

All rights reserved. � 2005 United Press International. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by United Press International. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of United Press International.

Related Links
Energia
SinoDaily
Search SinoDaily
Subscribe To SinoDaily Express