Since Putin Launched Expanded War in Ukraine, Ever More Russian Companies have Felt Free Not to Pay Workers On Time, ‘Okno’ Survey Finds

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 28 – Since Putin launched his expanded war in Ukraine, Russia government monitoring of firms concerning whether they are paying their employees reguarly has disappeared, a survey of workers in companies in the North says. As a result, the companies, even those working on defense contracts, have felt free not to pay their workers on time.

            Conducted by the Okno group, the survey found there are many reasons companies find it difficult to pay on a timely basis, including failure to be paid for their products and a desire to extract as much  money out of their factories as possible (okno.group/zastryali-v-arktike-bez-zarplat-kazhdaya-vtoraya-vahta-v-rossii-sidit-seychas-bez-deneg/).

            Wage arrears were a serious problem in the Russian Federation in the 1990s and have risen and fallen since them (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/04/ever-more-russian-companies-behind-in.html). But this is the first time investigators have linked the non-payment of wages and salaries to government policies arising from Putin’s war in Ukraine.

            What this means, of course, is that the natural anger workers and employees feel when they aren’t paid as scheduled will almost certainly feed anger about the war itself, pushing down support for what Moscow is doing there, however much the Kremlin and its propagandists seek to suggest otherwise.

            The coming together of these two types of anger thus presents the Kremlin with a serious problem, one that it can’t solve without infuriating either more workers or the company bosses who often are the closest allies of the Kremlin leader.