News

FNPR Newsletter. Fabruary 13, 2026

13.02.2026

114

February 13, 2026

Dear colleagues,

This is our next newsletter on the development of political and socioeconomic situation in Russia, on the FNPR activities to protect workers' rights and interests.

January 2026 was, as usual, a time for summing up the first results of social and economic development for the previous year. According to the Federal State Statistics Service, Russia’s GDP growth in 2025 slowed down to 1% compared to 4.9% growth in 2024. Against this background, real wage growth has also slowed down: during 2024, real wages in the country as a whole rose by 9.7% and by 4.5% in 2025.

The slowdown in the GDP and real wages growth observed during 2025 has been a major concern for trade unions. The FNPR Chairman Sergei Chernogaev paid special attention to this issue in his speech at the FNPR General Council meeting on 26 November 2025. He stressed that the main reason for the economic slowdown was the monetary policy of the Central Bank setting excessively high interest rate. Although it was reduced from 21% to 16% during the last year, it still remains high.

For its part, the Central Bank is justifying tight monetary policy with the need to combat inflation, which in 2025 was 5.6% compared to 9.5% a year earlier. According to the trade unions, such policy has a negative impact on business activity and indirectly on workers' incomes.

However, it should be noted that the Russian economy retains a significant safety margin. One manifestation of this is the fact that that unemployment in the country remains all-time low. In December 2025, it was 2.2% of the total employed population, which is the lowest unemployment rate among all G20 countries.

The social situation in the country, including in the world of work, is generally stable. An analytical review prepared by trade union experts of the Scientific Monitoring Centre, working under the supervision of the FNPR Vice-Chairman Evgeny Makarov, reports that during 2025, 138 social and labour conflicts occurred in the country as a whole (18.3% less than in 2024), including 9 strikes.

It should be made clear that "social and labour conflicts" in this survey refer to any situations where workers resort to some form of collective protest, whether public or non-public. Non-public forms of protest include, for example, a collective appeal to the authorities. Most of these conflicts (103) have resulted in full or partial satisfaction of the workers' demands.

Continued social and economic stability is also implicitly confirmed by a high level of citizens' trust in the country’s leadership. Thus, in the course of an all-Russian poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation on February 6-8, 2026, 80% of respondents positively evaluated Vladimir Putin's performance as President of the Russian Federation, while 78% expressed their trust in him.

The above-mentioned FNPR General Council meeting on 26 November was devoted to discussing the main areas of activity for 2026. The Federation’s action plan includes continued work on the issues we have repeatedly written about over the past year. These are:

- the fight to raise minimum wage to the level of the minimum consumer budget and to extend basic social and labour guarantees to platform workers;

- strengthening of trade union control over labour protection;

- promotion of legislative initiatives aimed at strengthening social dialogue mechanisms, etc.

Engagement with the government on these issues throughout 2026 promises to be a challenging one. On the one hand, Russia’s government is open to social dialogue and holds regular meetings of the Trilateral Commission for the Regulation of Social and Labour Relations during which ministers and the leaders of trade unions and employers' association discuss all decisions related to the world of work.

The positive nature of relations between the state and trade unions was recently emphasized by the President of Russia, too. During a meeting with the FNPR Chairman Sergei Chernogaev on November 17, 2025, Vladimir Putin pointed out that "the Federation performs an essential state function, perhaps the most essential one: to protect workers’ rights and interests. It also greatly contributes to monitoring occupational safety, which is equally important."

On the other hand, there still exist sharp contradictions between the economic bloc of the government and trade unions on specific socioeconomic issues. So, as of February this year, the government has rejected the trade union proposal to ensure respect for fundamental labour rights of platform workers. Contrary to the demands of trade unions, the Federal Law "On Certain Aspects of Regulating the Platform Economy in the Russian Federation" adopted on 31 July 2025 does not extend the provisions of the Labour Code to platform workers. Trade unions continue to fight for the rights of this category of workers.

Along with the above issues, with a view of its organisational strengthening, in 2026 the FNPR will focus on digital transformation of the trade union work. Over the coming years, the FNPR and its member organisations intend to build an integral online system of communication with trade union members, starting with the formation of a single electronic membership base accounting system.

The international environment, particularly the armed conflict in Ukraine, remains an important factor affecting the lives of Russian workers and the country in general. Despite the fact that Russian troops are successfully advancing along the entire front line, Russia has consistently pursued the line for a peaceful settlement, including participation in the negotiations under the U.S. mediation.

It is only to be regretted that the EU policy makers, as well as many Western European governments, keep encouraging the current Kiev regime to continue the hostilities. Nevertheless, we hope that during 2026 a lasting peace settlement will be reached, providing respect for the rights and the choice made by the population of several regions that have seceded from Ukraine since 2014 and subsequently joined Russia.

For their part, trade unions continue to provide humanitarian assistance to civilian population of the regions affected by hostilities. Thus, over the course of 2025, the FNPR and its member organisations collected and delivered humanitarian aid worth over four billion rubles (about US$ 52 million) to those who needed it most. Trade unions dispatched 38,000 tons of humanitarian supplies to those areas.