Yakutia's utilities crisis: indebted heating firms, rising regional debt and the Lena bridge — and the Sardaana News editorial position

News

On 11 September 2026 the Aldan community page AldanOnline on VK (post) published a piece titled “The crisis in Yakutia’s housing and utilities continues.” According to it, on 9 September the Yakutia Arbitration Court ordered the municipal company Teploenergoservis of Aldan district to pay 83.46 million rubles to the Far Eastern Energy Company: for March–April it had received 81.75 million rubles’ worth of electricity but paid only 70,500 rubles, citing subsidies it never received. It was the third such ruling; the three cases add up to more than 241 million rubles in debt, penalties and court costs.

According to the financial statements cited by the page, in its first half-year (the company was set up in summer 2025) it had revenue of 486.5 million rubles against costs of 1.079 billion, a net loss of 232.4 million, and payables of 1.149 billion rubles as of 31 December, despite 354.4 million in subsidies. The authors describe the model: real resource costs exceed income, the budget is supposed to cover the gap, subsidies are short or late — and suppliers go to court.

The republic’s utility system

• Yakutia head Aisen Nikolaev told the Eastern Economic Forum (2 September 2026) that almost half of the republic’s 1,165 boiler houses are more than 60% worn, and 4,300 km of heating networks are 48% worn. Over three years the budget spent 72 billion rubles subsidising the gap between costs and tariffs; more than 38 billion is budgeted for 2026, but he said 10 billion is missing. He proposed a moratorium on bankruptcies of key northern utility companies (YSIA).
• In September 2025 an emergency regime was declared in Arctic Olenyok because there was no heating; according to SakhaNews, 265 boiler houses were not yet running because of a cash gap of about 7 billion rubles (SakhaNews). In August 2025 boiler houses in Vitim had zero oil reserves; the settlement head said the republic’s finance ministry had not paid utility subsidies for more than five months (SakhaTime).
• Over the 2026 New Year holidays there were 21 accidents at life-support facilities; a high-alert regime was in force (YSIA).
• From 1 October 2026 the average cap on utility bill growth in Yakutia is 18.9%, up to 27% in some municipalities (decree No. 1058); heating rose by 23% on average (14.ru).

Budget and debt

• Yakutia’s 2026 budget was adopted with a deficit of 12.75 billion rubles, revised in spring to 12.85 billion with spending of 362.5 billion (Garant, SakhaNews).
• Public debt: 59.0 billion rubles on 1 January 2026 (republic finance ministry data cited by SakhaTime) and 68.8 billion on 1 July 2026 according to the government’s preliminary data (Sakha-news, SakhaTime). The debt ceiling for 1 January 2027 is 75.2 billion; debt service in 2026 is budgeted at 6.2 billion.

The Lena bridge

The project’s total cost is 174.8 billion rubles (federal budget 65 billion, Yakutia 27.3 billion, concessionaire VIS Group 82.5 billion), according to the bridge directorate (14.ru). Construction began in autumn 2024; completion was originally planned for 2028, officials now say 2029, and Nikolaev has said “late 2029 – 2030” (Vesti, SakhaNews). In July 2026 Nikolaev said 26 billion rubles had been funded (RIA Novosti).

Russia’s war spending

According to Russia’s Finance Ministry, spending under “National defence” was 13.5 trillion rubles in 2025 (amended budget) and is set at 12.93 trillion rubles for 2026 — 29.3% of all federal spending (Minfin, Vedomosti). SIPRI estimates Russia’s total military spending in 2025 at about 16 trillion rubles (around 7.5% of GDP) (SIPRI).

Comparison (editors’ calculation from the figures above): 12.93 trillion rubles a year is about 35 billion rubles a day. The full cost of the Lena bridge (174.8 billion) equals roughly five days of 2026 “national defence” spending; Yakutia’s entire debt (68.8 billion) less than two days; the missing 10 billion in utility subsidies about seven hours. One year of “national defence” money could pay for about 74 such bridges.

Sardaana News editorial position

This is the opinion of the editors, not news.

Responsibility for Yakutia’s utilities crisis lies with the head of the republic, Aisen Nikolaev, and with Russia — with Moscow. The republic is on the brink of bankruptcy and in a serious utilities crisis: boiler houses without fuel, companies in debt, rising tariffs, and the republic’s debt up by almost 10 billion rubles in six months.

At the same time, Russia spends enormous sums killing children, men and women in Ukraine and trying to destroy the Ukrainian language, culture and statehood. That money could have built thousands of schools and homes, solved the housing and utilities crises in Russia and in Yakutia — and built the Lena bridge, which costs less than a week of military spending.