INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The head of Russia's space agency, who has made headlines with his bombastic statements and support for Moscow's Ukraine offensive, has been
relieved of his duties and will get a new job, the Kremlin said Friday.Dmitry Rogozin, a firebrand nationalist politician and one of the
most ardent supporters of Moscow's offensive in Ukraine, was dismissed as head of Roscosmos, a Kremlin decree said.But President Vladimir
Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state news agency TASS that Rogozin, 58, would get a new job "in due time."Peskov did not provide any
details but said his departure from the space agency did not mean the Kremlin was unhappy with his work there.One independent media outlet
said he would be promoted and could be put in charge of occupied territories in Ukraine.After Putin sent troops to Ukraine on Feb
24, Rogozin has regularly published gung-ho statements on social media, saying in May that it would take Russia only half an hour to
"destroy" NATO countries in a nuclear war.At Roscosmos, Rogozin was replaced by Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov, who has a military
background.Meduza, an independent Russian-language news site, citing three sources close to the Kremlin, reported this week that Rogozin
could soon get a Kremlin job.Citing the sources, the media outlet said Putin "loves" Rogozin and his eyebrow-raising statements and that
Rogozin could be appointed to oversee Ukraine's separatist regions as well as Ukrainian territories taken over by Russia.Pro-Moscow
officials in occupied Ukrainian territories say they are hoping to stage referendums on joining Russia soon.Putin appointed Rogozin to
manage the country's struggling space agency in 2018.At the time some experts described him as an outsider who lacked the necessary
sanctions in 2014 when Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine he also served as Russia's NATO envoy
annexation of Crimea, Rogozin said that U.S
astronauts should use trampolines instead of Russian rockets to get to the International Space Station
Soviet space program and remain a major source of national pride in Russia.But experts say the Russian space agency remains a shadow of its
former self and has in recent years suffered a series of setbacks including corruption scandals and the loss of a number of satellites and
space exploration was one of the few areas where cooperation between Russia and the United States and its allies had not been wrecked by
tensions over Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere.Russia and the United States have worked side by side on the ISS, which has been in orbit since
