Hunger strike by workers at flagship Russian spaceport

Some 26 workers staged the hunger strike in the latest controversy to hit the giant new space complex in the Far East of Russia.

The staff are from company Stroyindustriya, but it follows an earlier halt in work by contract staff who claimed they had not been paid. 

'26 people are starving and about 100 are just in the strike,' a protester told Kommersant newspaper. 'We understand that it is not good, but we can not tolerate it all.'

The hunger strike came a day after Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said  that the head of Spetsstroy Alexander Volosov flew to Vostochny 'to remove the problem with the salary and negligent subcontractors'.

Meanwhile, it was reported that management of Ideal company, a main contractor to the Vostochny space centre's construction,   terminated its agreement with Stroyindustriya, whose employees went on strike over wage arrears, Ideal Deputy CEO for economic security Oleg Dokuchayev said.

Ideal claimed it had fulfilled its contractual obligations to Stroyindustriya.

'After our first advance payment, Stroyindustriya workers started a strike over wage arrears,' said a spokeswoman. 'We immediately informed Dalspetsstroy and Amur regional law enforcement and prosecution agencies of this situation. 

'The contract termination procedure was started, of which the Stroyindustriya management was informed in a timely manner. All contracts have been terminated now.'

The workers say they are owned up to 140,000 roubles ($2460) per person in arrears. There are more than 5,700 people working on the Vostochny spaceport.

 Some facilities of Vostochny have fallen 120 days behind schedule, Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) Chief Igor Komarov said this week.