“Collapse could happen in a matter of days”: sanctions paralyze Russian railways

International restrictions have led to a shortage of ball bearings in Russia, making it extremely difficult to service vehicles.

State-owned Russian Railways (RZD) faces “inevitable collapse” due to a shortage of locomotives caused by Western sanctions, Newsweek reports, citing Russian sources .

The sanctions have led to a shortage of ball bearings, which has affected locomotive maintenance. This has led to an increase in the number of faults on the network’s trains.

According to the first deputy general director of the state-owned company Russian Railways, Sergei Kobzev, “the situation is critical.” “A complete collapse of the entire railway network in the country could happen in a matter of days,” Newsweek reports.

The company’s executives are allegedly ordered to work until “complete exhaustion.” Those who fail to cope are threatened with dismissal.

It is impossible to confirm the accuracy of this data at this time. However, last year Russian Railways reported that the number of trains suspended due to a shortage of critical parts had more than doubled.

In February, Russian Railways stated that this issue had become particularly acute in the last quarter of 2023.

Sabotage on Russian railways

In addition to the shortage of critical spare parts, one of the problems of the Russian railways is sabotage. Earlier, we recall, the ATESH movement partisans disabled a railway line near Yekaterinburg, which the Russian Federation used to transport ammunition from North Korea.

Earlier, the ATESH partisan movement carried out sabotage on the railway in the Russian city of Yaroslavl.

(c)UNIAN 2024

4 comments

Ball bearings is not high-tech…………………………………….Fred Flinstone used them already in his Stone-Age Cadillac Sedan.

The company’s executives are allegedly ordered to work until “complete exhaustion.” Those who fail to cope are threatened with dismissal.

How will dismissing the executives help repair trains if the spare parts are not available?

A few months ago there were reports of russian transport planes being grounded because of defective ball bearings. Access to high-quality ones were cut off by sanctions, so someone substituted cheap crap from China.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russian-military-transport-fleet-hit-by-defective-ball-bearings-scandal/ar-BB1qkbF4

I remember reports during the start of this war that mentioned ball bearings in conjunction with sanctions. There are only a small handful of bearing manufacturers who make high-quality products, and none are in mafia land or bat virus land. Bearings are what makes the world go round. Without them, nothing goes.