News that employees of various Russian companies are suffering wage arrears are making into Russia’s national news—a worrisome sign for a government that claims to have stabilized the economy in the face of Western sanctions. In Yekaterinburg, the Ural Compressor Plant was late in paying wages to its employees for months due to failed export contracts and frozen partner accounts. Then it decided to reduce wages from October on. The Inskoy coal mine in the Kemerovo region went bankrupt in part due to sanctions affecting the Russian coal industry and financial transactions. Medical workers in the Altai Territory and construction workers in the Irkutsk Region complained of late payments. The drivers of a transportation firm in St. Petersburg mounted a protest in July after the company cut their wages in half. In late August, the employees of CNII Electronica, a contractor of the state-owned technology giant Rostec, sent a complaint over wage arrears to Vladimir Putin himself. The State Air Traffic Management Corporation announced that it may not have the funds to pay salaries due in September due to Western sanctions and the lingering effects of the COVID crisis.
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