Russian railway monopoly "RZhD" (Russian Railways) is plunging into a deep crisis and is being forced to switch to a strict austerity regime.
This is reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation.
According to available data, in 2026 the Russian carrier plans to allocate 713.6 billion rubles (over $9 billion) for investments. This is 25% less than was budgeted for 2025.
The company has decided to cut spending on critically important items. In particular, funding for the purchase of new wagons and locomotives will be reduced by 37%, while railway construction expenses will decrease by 20%.
The main reason for this step was the collapse of freight transportation, which analysts are calling the deepest in the last 15 years. Freight traffic was the financial foundation of RZhD, but falling exports, international sanctions, logistical disruptions, and an overall reduction in industrial activity in the Russian Federation have dealt a blow to the monopolist's revenues.
The CCD emphasizes that RZhD is one of the largest enterprises of the aggressor country, through which the lion's share of raw material flows and military logistics passes. The financial problems of such a systemically important structure indicate the exhaustion of the Russian economy's resilience and the growth of deep structural risks.
The approved reduction of the investment program for 2026 is a continuation of a negative trend: this is already the third consecutive year that the company has been forced to cut development spending. In real terms, taking into account official Russian inflation, the decline in investment is even more dramatic. The main financial "noose" for the monopolist has been the Central Bank of Russia's record key rate: the company has accumulated debt of 4 trillion rubles, and servicing these obligations at current rates is consuming resources that should have gone to upgrading tracks and locomotives.
Financial problems have been compounded by an operational collapse that experts call a "traction crisis." Due to a sanctions-induced deficit of quality spare parts (particularly bearings) and staff shortages, a critical mass of defective or "excess" wagons has accumulated on the railway network. As of 2025, approximately 300,000 wagons were reported to be idle and blocking traffic, creating congestion on main lines. This has led to a paradoxical situation: RZhD has declared war on empty wagons, trying to forcibly remove them from the tracks to free up space for strategic cargo.
This collapse is hitting the export potential of the entire Russian Federation. Shipments of coal, metals, and construction materials—key sources of the country's foreign currency earnings—have fallen. The reduction in purchases of new locomotives (only 400 units are planned to be acquired) means that the fleet will age even faster, and the Kremlin's hopes of expanding the capacity of the "Eastern Range" (for trade with China) may be shattered by the carrier's technical inability to provide this traffic.
