7:27 a.m .: Faced with sanctions, the factory town of Lada on the edge of the abyss
Togliatti, a “mono-industrial” city, is one with the gigantic Avtovaz car factory, Russia’s leading manufacturer. But because of international sanctions, this city and its workers risk being dragged into an abyss.
“For Togliatti, the factory is everything. The whole city was built around it” in Soviet times, says Irina Mialkina, 33, who has worked in a spare parts warehouse for eleven years. The construction of the factory began in 1966 with the help of Fiat in this city named after the Italian communist Palmiro Togliatti.
Due to sanctions, components and spare parts no longer arrive. The workers are technically unemployed, paid two-thirds. Irina therefore receives 13,000 of her 20,000 monthly rubles, or less than 140 euros.