Vladimir Putin’s rocket man is the latest powerful Russian to die mysteriously

Vladimir Putin’s rocketman, who was responsible for making the Russian president’s dreams of space racing a reality, has died.

Vladimir Nesterov, who developed the country’s first missile design since Soviet times, the Angara, has passed away at the age of 74.

The state news agency TASS reported on Wednesday about the death of the former general director of the State Space Research and Production Center in Khrunichev.

His cause of death was not released by official authorities.

Long hoping the rocket would help Russia reach the moon again, Putin was used to launch the Kosmos-2560 military satellite in October.

But Nesterov resigned as lead developer of the space rocket system in 2012 after two satellites exploded in a failed Proton-M rocket launch.

As chief engineer, he continued to work on the development of Angara.

In 2014, after the first successful launch of Angara, Nesterov left the agency entirely as he faced allegations of fraud and embezzlement.

Six years later he was criminally charged with embezzling more than £57 million from the state.

Investigators alleged that a year into his tenure as head of the Khrunichev Center in 2006, Nesterov allowed the American company Space Transport Inc to sell shares to Russia, which his agency then bought back at a higher price.

The case is still pending in court.

Nesterov is the latest member of Putin’s stratosphere to die this year in somewhat nebulous circumstances, with four senior Russians dying over Christmas

Alexander Buzakov, head of Russia’s non-nuclear submarine manufacturer Admiralty Shipyards, died on Christmas Eve at the age of 65.

MP and sausage baron Pavel Antov fell from a hotel window and died on Christmas Day in India.

His friend who traveled with him, Vladimir Budanov, died of a stroke two days earlier in the same hotel.

General Alexei Maslow, former head of the Russian army, also died on Christmas Day.

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