Moscow to relax labour laws allowing minors to do ‘dangerous’ jobs amid manpower shortage
https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/02/26/russia-to-relax-labour-laws-allowing-minors-to-do-dangerous-jobs-amid-manpower-shortage-en-news
Posted by duckanroll
30 Comments
Yep, better work them before sending them off to die.
The children yearn for the mines
That means they had labour laws, which is more than I expected.
Immoral
Russia is such a primitive backwards place. The US has been doing this aggressively since COVID. Minors in many states can now work in demolition, meat-packing slaughterhouses, and even operate heavy-machinery. Russia is like a decade behind at least.
#Hear me! Hear me! A new law in the city!
Welcome back Victorian britain
Nothing says “great democracy” more than child slavery.
Scraping the barrel much?
can’t wait for pro-Russian tankies to defend this which obviously goes against communism/socialism
*sign Child Labour (dangerous job)
“Listen here everyone! A new law in the City! A new law has passed!”
the kids truly yearn for the mines
More child chimney sweeps are required.
So wait, they don’t have the manpower to continue the war, and their solution is to make children work adult jobs?
Regardless of how the war ends, it seems there will barely be anyone left for the Russian elite to exploit…
I wouldn’t do that in Frostpunk
Where did all the men go?
/s
Nothing to see here, in year 5 of the three day military special operation. This is completely normal. Why would kids in Russia need to learn anything if they are going to die at age 16 in Ukraine?
Coupled with the fact that many Ukrainian children have been abducted during the war, how many of them will end up doing child labour?
Is this something that russians are positive to?
Full on Mordorisation in progress.
Russia feels like the Christian version of my country..🙄
“[…] every man, woman, and child over 7. Do your part! Get to work!”
When satire is no longer just satire…
How long until the first 14yo are voluntold for the frontlines?
Just a 3 day special child labour operation.
won’t that just increase the number of work accidents if you have teens do dangerous stuff they’re not physically ready for.
Manpower shortage so bad they’re sending children to do dangerous jobs. This is what ‘winning’ the war looks like in 2026 Russia. Asian monkey in Kreml is mastermind!
“safer than the streets” – I would say that most workplaces are safer than (many of) Russian streets but the majority of people do not spend as much time on the streets as at work during our lives…
They are fundamentally not a European country
01:57 PM, 26 February 2026 [Georgie Archer](https://novayagazeta.eu/authors/857), exclusively for Novaya Gazeta Europe
Amid a deepening labour shortage, the Russian government is to ease restrictions on employing teenagers in certain industries once considered too dangerous for minors, Russian news agency TASS reported on Thursday.
According to Yaroslav Nilov, who chairs the State Duma Committee on Labour, Social Policy and Veterans’ Affairs, though teenagers can undertake vocational training and complete apprenticeships for such jobs, they are currently barred from taking up formal employment in the roles due to existing safety regulations.
Nilov said the new rules would come into force this summer and would “significantly reduce restrictions” on hiring teenagers in high-risk industries while continuing to protect the rights of minors.
“We’re talking about working conditions that were considered dangerous 20 years ago,” Nilov said, adding that the situation had now changed, and claiming that industries once thought to be dangerous were “safer to be in than on the street”, though he didn’t specify which sectors would be affected.
Russia’s labour shortage has intensified since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with the lack of manpower caused both by the mobilisation of Russia’s military reserve and the decision of an estimated 1 million Russians to emigrate.
[According](https://www.rand.org/pubs/commentary/2026/02/the-war-is-coming-home-to-russia.html#:~:text=The%20war%20is%20already%20having,September%202025%20but%20probably%20higher).) to US-based think tank the RAND Corporation, Russia’s Labour Minister Anton Kotyakov warned Vladimir Putin in 2025 that the country could face a shortage of 2.4 million workers by 2030.
I see more power outages and human catastrophes
Yes, a country with a massive demographical crisis wants to kill and/or main their limited amount of children.
What a great idea.