THE INTERNAL MUTINY… 700,000 Workers TURN ON…...

THE INTERNAL MUTINY… 700,000 Workers TURN ON…

THE INTERNAL MUTINY… 700,000 Workers TURN ON…
MOSCOW — The steel tracks that span Russia’s eleven time zones have long been hailed as the spine of the Kremlin’s geopolitical power. But today, those very tracks are buckling under the weight of a severe and compounding crisis. Russia’s state-owned railway monopoly, Rossiyskie Zheleznye Dorogi (RZD), is facing its worst financial and operational outlook in nearly two decades. Underneath the surface of state-mandated optimism, a quiet but devastating mutiny is brewing among its 700,000-strong workforce, threatening to sever the primary logistical jugular keeping President Vladimir V. Putin’s war machine in Ukraine alive.
For decades, the Russian military has been fundamentally dependent on RZD. Heavily integrated into railway operations, Russian military doctrine dictates that up to 87 percent of all military freight—including heavy tanks, artillery batteries, ammunition, and diesel fuel—must travel by rail to reach the front lines. Now, severe equipment shortages, massive budget deficits, and a rapidly escalating revolt over unpaid wages and brutal working conditions are threatening to halt those trains entirely, presenting the Kremlin with a logistical nightmare that could paralyze its armed forces.
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