Moscow airport furloughs 7,000 people as sanctions continue to bite
Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport has furloughed around 7,000 members of its staff after West’s sanctions on Moscow following the invasion of Ukraine.
The hub – which last year saw 30.9 million passengers pass through its gates – furloughed 40 per cent of its staff, cutting pay by a third, Russian media reported.
General director Mikhail Vasilenko wrote to staff last week to say the decision “was out of the control of the employer and employees” but linked to the “critical decrease in passenger traffic” following the closure of Russian airspace. The hubs was also forced to close a passenger terminal
Vasilenko’s decision not to say until when the scheme will be in place has only heightened speculation that Russia’s isolation will continue for the foreseeable future, the Telegraph wrote.
Since the war’s outbreak, countries such as the UK, EU and US have imposed sanctions on Moscow’s, including closing its airspace to Russian owned and registered aircraft, CityAM reported.
Just last week, transport secretary Grant Shapps reported that an aircraft was grounded on the basis it was linked to Russia.
“Today I have taken rapid action to identify and ground another plane pending enquiries about possible Russian links,” Shapps said on Saturday via Twitter.
“We are continuing to take decisive action against Putin and his illegal war in Ukraine.”
The plane is not the first to have been impounded since the UK Government made it a criminal offence for any Russian aircraft to enter Britain’s airspace on 8 March.