Russian Railways will lay off 6,000 employees due to losses and a decrease in freight traffic.
Modern.az reports that Oleg Belozerov, CEO of Russian Railways, stated this in an interview with Interfax agency. He announced that 15% of central office employees, including branch managers, would be laid off. "We will lay off approximately 6,000 people," he said. According to Belozerov, these and other measures by Russian Railways will allow for savings of 74 billion rubles in 2026. He added that in addition to the layoffs, the plan includes reducing fuel, electricity, and repair costs, as well as restructuring the entire organizational structure.
Russian Railways' plans to reduce its management staff and limit the hiring of new employees were announced in the autumn of 2025. At that time, the company stated that this was necessary to increase efficiency "in the face of declining work volumes and a difficult economic situation."
The decision was made against the backdrop of a sharp deterioration in Russian Railways' financial situation. For the first time since 2020, the carrier faced a net loss of 4.4 billion rubles. Russian Railways' total debt has approached 50 billion dollars, and interest expenses for the first nine months of 2025 alone doubled to 332 billion rubles.
The situation has been further exacerbated by the decrease in freight traffic, which has continued since the beginning of the war in Ukraine: by the end of 2025, volumes fell to 1.1 billion tons, the lowest figure since 2009.
