Moscow’s salary pledge falls flat as Russian doctors and miners go unpaid
Photo: a hospital in Russia (Sergey Aksyonov)
In Russia, medical workers are widely reporting salary cuts, on average by 25–30%. The main reason cited is the reduction or complete cancellation of incentive payments, according to the Foreign Intelligence Service.
For example, at the emergency hospital in Vladimir. In January, staff received no additional pay for work intensity at all, and in February, they were paid only 100 rubles for quality. As a result, doctors lost at least 10,000 rubles per month, and their annual income decreased by at least 40,000 rubles. At the same time, the regional health ministry denies any reduction in payments.
A similar situation exists in Suzdal, where at the district hospital, the chief physician canceled incentive payments for seniority and qualifications from February 1 to March 31 due to overspending of the wage fund. Despite this, local authorities claim that doctors’ salaries are rising.
In Kurgan, at the emergency hospital, mass resignations of operating room nurses are being recorded after their salaries were reduced by more than 10,000 rubles in February, with a base salary of around 50,000 rubles. The reason given was failure to meet the plan, but no explanations were provided to the staff.
Despite official statements from the Russian government about allocating 9.6 billion rubles to raise doctors’ salaries in 2026, in practice, the situation is accompanied by a wave of complaints and resignations.
Miners also left without pay
Meanwhile, payment problems are also being observed in other sectors. In the Kemerovo region, a court ordered the coal company Severnyi Kuzbass to pay 8.2 million rubles in arrears to workers, with the total debt standing at 145 million rubles.
In the region, at least 19 coal enterprises have suspended operations, more than 6,000 miners have lost their jobs, and the regional budget lost 36 billion rubles in tax revenue for 2025.
In addition, a criminal case has been opened in Yakutia against the company AnthraciteInvestProject, which owes workers more than 196 million rubles.
It will be recalled that earlier, the Foreign Intelligence Service also reported that Russians are complaining about salary delays and illegal dismissals.
It was also reported that federal budgets in Russia are in a critical state, which also affects salaries—there simply is not enough money to pay them.
