Falling Water Levels Forcing Moscow to Dredge Rivers and Ports across Russia, Turning to China and Iran while Struggling to Build More Dredging Ships

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 11 – Drought, climate change and increased human use of water from Russia’s major rivers is forcing Moscow to dredge ever more rivers and ports from one end of the country to another and, given the shortage of its own dredging ships, to turn to China and Iran for help.

            Because Russia is far more dependent on its rivers for transport than almost any other country and because it hopes to use its ports to expand its contacts with others, Moscow has long been committed to keeping its rivers open for navigation. But since the disintegration of the USSR, two-thirds of the internal waterways open for shipping have ceased to be.

            Most of that decline has been since Putin took power (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/04/russia-now-has-only-50000-km-of-fully.html), and Moscow has responded by turning to China and Iran to keep the remaining rivers navigable (jamestown.org/program/iran-joins-china-in-dredging-russias-volga-river-further-solidifying-anti-western-axis/).

            A year ago, the Russian government committed itself to expanding its domestic dredging fleet (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/01/moscow-may-finally-be-about-to-confront.html); but there is less evidence to suggest that it has made much progress in that result and many reports suggesting that ships and barges can use ever fewer parts of its rivers (portnews.ru/news/373765/ and sudostroenie.info/novosti/45390.html).   

            Those reports have reached a crescendo in the last few weeks as the summer begins and dredging work takes off. For examples of the problems Moscow faces, see zol.ru/n/3ecb7, https://www.korabel.ru/news/comments/v_komi_nachalis_dnouglubitelnye_raboty_na_reke_vychegde.html, korabel.ru/news/comments/v_ob-irtyshskom_basseyne_nachalos_dnouglublenie_sudovyh_hodov.html and korabel.ru/news/comments/v_komi_nachalis_dnouglubitelnye_raboty_na_reke_vychegde.html

            The focus of Moscow’s efforts not surprisingly are on the Volga-Don Canal and the port of Astrakhan on the Caspian where falling water levels are preventing the use of the facilities of both for naval ships as well as merchant carriers (ast.mk.ru/social/2025/06/06/v-astrakhanskoy-oblasti-proydut-meropriyatiya-po-dnouglubleniyu-sudokhodnogo-kanala.html, astrakhan.kp.ru/online/news/6409990/ and portnews.ru/news/377951/.)

            Dredging operations in Russia and the increasing problems Moscow faces in keeping its rivers open seldom gets much attention in the West, but the absence of rail and highway networks mean that if Russia loses the ability to use its rivers for navigation, it will face major security and economic problems ahead.