Putin’s “favorite enterprise” will begin to lay off employees

Uralvagonzavod will reduce up to 10% of employees in a number of divisions by February next year, according to an order from the executive director of the company, which was obtained by E1. Ironically, the layoffs will take place at a company whose employees publicly supported the re-election of Vladimir Putin three times before the presidential election.

Details. The order providing for the “optimization of the number” of employees was signed on October 7, writes E1. “Optimize the number of centers, services, departments, institutes, departments of the company to 10% of their average number,” the order says.

• Employees E1 spoke with are wary of larger optimizations. According to their information, the reduction for most departments will be up to 50% of their staffing levels.

• A month before this - at the beginning of October - some of the employees of Uralvagonzavod were transferred to a four-day working week. The reason was a drop in demand for civilian products.

The enterprise is a symbol. Uralvagonzavod is Russia's largest developer and manufacturer of armored vehicles ( the only manufacturer of tanks), as well as freight cars. However, the company is known not only for this.

• The authorities have repeatedly used the enterprise for PR purposes. In the winter of 2011, amid mass protests against fraud in the State Duma elections, the head of the Uralvagonzavod assembly shop, Igor Kholmanskikh, expressed support for Putin during a direct line with him. “If our police, or, as they are now called, the police, do not know how to work, cannot cope, then the men and I are ready to go out ourselves and defend our stability,” Kholmanskikh said. And before the presidential elections, a committee was created at Uralvagonzavod in support of Putin. Its representatives conducted a propaganda raid on enterprises in the Sverdlovsk region and staged a rally in support of Putin in Yekaterinburg.

Putin’s “favorite enterprise” will begin to lay off employees

Uralvagonzavod will reduce up to 10% of employees in a number of divisions by February next year, according to an order from the executive director of the company, which was obtained by E1. Ironically... pic.twitter.com/T8bZcfaja2

— Agency News (@agents_media) November 6, 2025

• After Putin returned to the presidency, Kholmanskikh was appointed plenipotentiary representative in the Ural Federal District, and the chairman of the board of directors of the enterprise, Evgeny Shkolov, became assistant to the president. And Uralvagonzavod began to be called Putin’s “favorite enterprise” in the media. This formulation was used by Forbes , Ura.ru , Kommersant , and Moskovsky Komsomolets .

• Putin visited Uralvagonzavod at least five times - in 1999 , 2012 , 2015 , 2018 and 2024 . During a visit in 2018, one of the company’s employees told the president that “in 2012 we supported you with all of our Uralvagonzavod” and “we see that we made the right choice.”

• During Putin’s trip to the plant before the 2024 elections, one of the company’s employees said: “Vladimir Vladimirovich, Nizhny Tagil is also called Putingrad, because Tagil residents always support you.”

• Putin has repeatedly helped the enterprise. In 2009, against the backdrop of the global crisis, the company faced a sharp drop in demand for railcars. As Vedomosti wrote , Uralvagonzavod was saved by the help of Putin, who ordered the allocation of 25 billion rubles to the plant.

• In 2016, Putin again helped the enterprise by prohibiting railway operators from extending the service life of cars - they had to start purchasing new ones en masse, Vedomosti wrote.

• During a visit to the plant last year, Putin promised to “work” to solve the labor shortage problem. “The shortage is approximately one and a half thousand skilled workers. We need to restore it,” Putin said. He promised to allocate “under 400 million” to two technical schools in Nizhny Tagil.

Context. The reason for the crisis at Uralvagonzavod is probably the same as for other large enterprises - a slowdown in the Russian economy and a drop in domestic demand. Because of this, they are forced to cut costs, including personnel, in industries from railways and automobile manufacturing to the metallurgical, coal, diamond and cement industries, Reuters wrote in early October. The following companies are forced to increase savings on employees: Tsemros, Russian Railways, GAZ, KAMAZ, AvtoVAZ, LiAZ, Alrosa, Mechel, Chelyabinsk Electrometallurgical Plant.