A large-scale redistribution of financial and human resources toward the Russian military-industrial complex has overheated specific segments of the labor market, effectively depleting the civilian manufacturing sector. According to a report by the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine (SZRU), official Russian statistics present a distorted view of the country’s economic health, masking significant structural challenges.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Wage discrepancies and sector stagnation The Russian state statistics service, Rosstat, reported an increase in the average nominal wage to $1,460 in the first quarter of 2026. The official explanation attributes this to planned indexation in the public sector and competitive salary increases at large enterprises, coupled with a record-low official unemployment rate of 2.2%. However, the intelligence noted that these figures diverge significantly from data recorded by the Russian banking sector. Sberbank, utilizing transactional monitoring, estimates the actual median wage to be $900. The intelligence attributes this $560 gap between the official average and the real median wage to an extreme concentration of income in sectors directly tied to defense, finance, and raw materials. These high-paying sectors statistically elevate the overall average, obscuring wage stagnation in the broader economy. Industries employing the majority of the workforce show the slowest growth. Wages in fishing, coal mining, automotive manufacturing, woodworking, and railway transport increased by only 6%, remaining at an average of $1,091. The light industry sector reports even lower figures, with apparel manufacturing averaging $791, healthcare at $764, and education at $737. Ukrainian intelligence noted that even these figures are based on official data and may be inflated.