- Russian state media and businesses are petitioning for a 6-day work week to fund war in Ukraine.
- The extra work day would likely come without additional pay, according to UK intelligence.
- Multiple 4-day work week trials in the UK and Spain have reported positive results for employees.
Russian state media and some Kremlin-linked businesses are proposing a six-day work week in order to fund Russia’s war in Ukraine — without additional pay.
According to an intelligence update from the UK Ministry of Defence, the state-backed media and business groups “have petitioned the Economic Ministry to authorize a six-day week for workers in the face of the economic demands of the war, apparently without additional pay.”
The intel didn’t say which groups were proposing the change or whether or not it would be approved.
The ministry also cited Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of state media broadcaster RT and a prominent Russian propagandist, who said last week that citizens should clock into munition production factories for two hours each day after their regular jobs.
The additional work day is marking a shift towards “mandating citizens to actively make sacrifices in support of the war effort.” The ministry suggested that this reflects a “Soviet-style sense of societal compulsion” and also creates a broader tone around the war as a communal Russian effort that all citizens are involved in.
Other countries, such as the UK and Spain, have recently experimented with 4-day work weeks and found positive results for workers. Employees reported that while the extra day off was an adjustment, it improved their mental health, eased stress levels, and made returning to work easier.
This move comes as Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin warn of a potential revolution as Russian elite families refuse to send their children to die in Ukraine.
Last week, Prigozhin went on a profane rant hitting Russian President Vladimir Putin for how the “fat, carefree” lives of Russia’s wealthy could spark a “revolution” similar to the Russian Revolution of 1917, leading working-class citizens to storm the elite’s “villas” with “pitchforks.”
“The children of the elite smear themselves with creams and show off on the internet, while ordinary people’s children come home in zinc [coffins], torn to pieces,” he said. “I recommend that the elite of the Russian Federation gathers up, bitch, its youth and send them to war.”
