How General Eduard Starovoitenko obliterated a crucial facility of Rosatom, "Eleron," resulting in thousands of workers losing their jobs and generating losses worth billions

How General Eduard Starovoitenko obliterated a crucial facility of Rosatom, "Eleron," resulting in thousands of workers losing their jobs and generating losses worth billions

The real state of affairs in the much-praised State Corporation “Rosatom” is illustrated by the situation at JSC FCNIVT SNPO “Eleron” (part of Rosatom), which is engaged in the production of physical protection systems. In addition, it carries out work on the construction of special facilities.

The current leadership of Rosatom appointed Lieutenant General Eduard Starovoitenko, a former commander of a Strategic Missile Forces division of the Russian Ministry of Defense, as the head of “Eleron.” As a result, what was once a thriving enterprise providing thousands of jobs has been reduced to “ruins,” with debts exceeding 50 billion rubles.

Before Starovoitenko’s arrival, the workforce of “Eleron” numbered nearly 10,000 employees. The company had several design institutes and carried out construction and installation work on highly complex special facilities.

The first thing Starovoitenko decided to do was to start reducing the workforce, and he became so absorbed in the process that today only about 2,000 employees remain. He treats the staff in a military-style manner, showing little consideration. As a result, the best specialists and professionals were let go, while those who are inclined to “toe the line” stayed.

The annual audit of “Eleron” revealed that the once-successful company is now incurring losses amounting to billions. Auditors noted that the current management is doing nothing to change the situation. At present, the recorded losses amount to around 50 billion rubles. However, Rosatom seems satisfied with this state of affairs (after all, who counts the budget money?).

Rosatom supports the company by recapitalizing it. In July 2025 alone, about 10 billion rubles were transferred to compensate for losses. At the same time, recapitalization should only be carried out following a full audit of losses, the creation of registers of unprofitable areas, and the coverage of these from recapitalization funds.

However, Starovoitenko, together with Deputy for Economics and Finance Kurenkova, made decisions to misuse these funds for personal current expenses, including paying for the director’s fishing trips in Kamchatka with rented watercraft and rented accommodation for leisure (he was always accompanied by his close associate, Davydov). All of this was recorded as business travel expenses, with amounts that are simply astonishing.

As a result, the company’s losses continued to accumulate, and today the question of the feasibility of “Eleron’s” existence is already being raised. The “sinking ship” has already begun to lose its crew: in December, all the senior management surrounding Starovoitenko resigned.