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Russia’s deputy PM puts end to strike at Far East spaceport over unpaid wages

A total of 61 people are to resume the construction works at the site

UGLEGORSK/Amur region/, April 6. /TASS/. Workers at Vostochny spaceport in Russia’s Far East, who went on strike, are already receiving salaries and have agreed to continue the construction after meeting with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.

"Together with the company that in fact was unable to square accounts with their workers have agreed on the following: first, the settlements are already being carried out and will soon be completed, second, I agreed and the head of Spetsstroy [Federal Agency for Special Construction] supported me so that the workers do not leave and they agreed," Rogozin told journalists after the meeting with the workers.

Spetsstroy head Alexander Volosov said a total of 61 people are to resume the construction works at the site.

The prosecutor of the Vostochny spaceport has sent materials to the investigators on the checks into wage arrears before the construction workers.

The Stroyindustriya-S construction company failed to pay more than 14 million rubles ($245,000) for January-February 2015 to 214 workers, the press service of the prosecutor’s office said earlier.

On March 31, the company started paying off the debt but it earmarked only a small amount of money. On April 4, a total of 26 workers announced a hunger strike and another 100 went on a strike.

The acting head of Dalspetsstroy, a federal special construction company building the Vostochny spaceport, Yury Volkodav said the same day the debt was to be paid off by April 10.

The Vostochny (Eastern) spaceport is being built near the town of Uglegorsk in the Amur Region. The spaceport, which has been under construction since 2010, is scheduled to be built by November 30, 2015.

The Vostochny cosmodrome will comprise two launch platforms, an airfield, facilities for crew members’ pre-launch preparation, oxygen-nitrogen and hydrogen plants, 115 kilometers of roadway and 125 kilometers of rail track.