Russia's Lena Bridge faces collapse as funding crisis deepens by 100 billion rubles

YAKUTIA.INFO. The Lena Bridge may not only miss its deadline but could be frozen entirely, Viktor Fedorov, a deputy of the Il Tumen, declared at a press conference last Friday.

Earlier, the lawmaker had spoken about the critical situation with housing and utilities and a budget deficit in the republic. In light of this, Yakutia.Info asked about the prospects for constructing the Lena Bridge under these circumstances.

"Where are we supposed to get 80–90 billion rubles? Tell me—what's the source! We need that same amount just to plug our own holes [in the budget and utilities]! We've taken on a project that'll tie us in knots just to build—why put ourselves through that!" the deputy fumed.

When asked whether the bridge would be completed by the promised deadline, Fedorov stated:

"It won't happen by 2028. Where will the money come from? Maybe a diamond meteorite will fall from the sky? Or the federal government will allocate a trillion rubles—which is unlikely."

He was equally skeptical about the possibility of a second infrastructure loan:

"Why take on more loans when we're already paying seven billion rubles a year just in interest? What's there to laugh about?"

In response to Yakutia.Info's question about the risk of the project being frozen, Fedorov confirmed: yes, the risks are real.

His remarks appear to have outraged some citizens, including government officials.

"They asked me if it would be built by 2028. I answered honestly: 'Unlikely.' Why? Because we don't live in a vacuum. The economy is turbulent, and the republic's budget has its limits. This isn't pessimism—it's facing reality," Viktor Fedorov later wrote in his Telegram channel, addressing the criticism directed at him.

Yakutia.Info had previously reported that the Lena Bridge was critically behind schedule and over budget. We predicted that if the cofferdam was not launched this summer—at the very latest, this fall—it would mean that VIS Group had failed to secure the necessary funding. The situation would then mirror the Novosibirsk Bridge, whose construction was delayed by two years due to underfunding.

Recall that Russian President Vladimir Putin set 2028 as the deadline for completing the Lena Bridge, while the project's original timeline targeted mid-2029.

As of now, the bridge's estimated cost stands at 174 billion rubles. The republic has contributed 27 billion, with the federal government pledging 43 billion. This leaves VIS Group responsible for the remaining 100 billion (not 80 billion) rubles.