News silently removed. The order is clear in Russia: there is no talk about Putin and the economy

Wage arrears almost doubled last month; articles disappeared. Coverage of the president declined.

On the same day, two signs that censorship of news in Russia is even tighter.

The Russian National Statistics Agency reported that the unpaid wages almost doubled in Russia last month, compared to April 2024.

The total salary arrears reached 2,879.9 million rubles in April this year, almost 35 million euros.

It is an increase of 35% compared to March and, more than that, it is a 94% increase compared to the same period of the previous year, when outstanding salaries were just below 17 million euros.

The number of workers affected by delays in paying wages rose to 19 thousand; doubled in just one month.

This data does not include small Russian companies.

O Kremlin does not want these numbers to be released in social communication.

Komsomolskaya Pravda and Kommersant even published articles with the Rosstat report, but the parts were silently removed of the internet, as described by .

State agencies TASS and RIA have clear indications: completely ignore data that shows an economy in decline, in trouble.

Independent newspapers, like , even have an article about these numbers.

Silence about Putin

Media coverage of the Russian president is also clearly conditioned, show figures from , an independent investigative portal.

Since the beginning of this year, it has dropped to less than half the number of articles about Vladimir Putinin state agencies TASS or RIA Novosti.

The idea will be to preserve the security of the Kremlin leader. The decline became evident after an alleged Ukrainian drone attack on the presidential residence in late 2025.

The President of Russia practically stopped traveling outside the areas of the main presidential residences. The last exception was in November last year, on a visit to Samara that lasted just one day, recalls .

Traveling abroad has also been rare: in 2026, he has only been to China and is in Kazakhstan, both exceptions this May.

Putin will be deeply concerned about his personal security; There are indications that he spends entire weeks isolated in bunkers highly fortified.