More than 300 Russian Schools on Brink of Collapse, and in the Last Five Years, More than 30 Have

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 20 – One of the most obvious signs that the Russian government doesn’t care about the Russian people is the state of its schools: At present, more than 300 of them are so poorly maintained that they are at risk of collapse, something that over the last five year, more than 30 have done.

            What makes this situation especially unfortunate is that in addition to these figures, there are many more schools without indoor plumbing or even running water and that aren’t on these government lists because officials judge that although they are in bad condition, they aren’t at risk of falling down on the heads of the children.

            Vladimir Putin has announced a program to improve the situation, but so far, the money doesn’t appear to be going for its intended purpose but into the hands of the bureaucracy (svpressa.ru/accidents/article/483069/ and semnasem.org/articles/2025/09/24/v-31-rossijskoj-shkole-proizoshli-obrusheniya-pochemu).

            These problems and the fact that they disproportionately affect schools in non-Russian areas and poorer Russian ones are seldom discussed except when a school actually collapses as one did a few days ago in Tatarsk (sibreal.org/a/zdes-normalnogo-nichego-net-v-tatarske-obrushilas-shkola/33537109.html).

            Only then do officials feel compelled to acknowledge that there is a problem and promise to do something, although history suggests that these promises at a time when the Kremlin needs money for Putin’s war in Ukraine are unlikely to be fulfilled and that more schools will collapse, a fitting metanym for the Putin regime.