Making a fortune in a financial fiasco Comparing the earnings of top executives at Russian state corporations during the economic crisis

In 2015, a crisis hit the Russian economy: despite reduced spending, Russians started living beyond their shrinking means, and many companies had to resort to layoffs. The news agency RBC examined the recession's effects on state-owned corporations, finding that many top executives actually earned more in 2015 than they did in years past.

Rosneft. The top managers at Rosneft, Russia's state oil conglomerate, earned some generous bonuses in 2015. Compared with 2014, their earnings jumped 43 percent, and the average annual salary among top executives rose to 312 million rubles ($4.1 million). Given the ruble's depreciation against foreign currencies, however, these salaries actually dropped 10 percent, when measured in dollars. Rosneft says its managers' salaries reflect the company's success in 2014. Ordinary employees enjoyed pay raises last year, too. The average salary was up 13.8 percent, and Rosneft even expanded its labor force by 1.4 percent.

Sberbank. Senior staff at Sberbank earned 7 percent less in 2015, with the average annual salary among top executive falling to about 194.4 million rubles ($2.5 million). In dollar terms, this was a 41-percent decline. What happened to ordinary employees' salaries is anybody's guess. (There is no data about their earnings.) What is known is that Sberbank managed to avoid layoffs, even growing its labor force by 3.3 percent.

VTB. Top executives weathered some major cuts to their pay, earning four times less in rubles. Measured in dollars, their salaries fell by more than six times. Average yearly earnings among the bank's top managers fell to 34.8 million rubles ($455,000). VTB says the reduction in pay was the result of the bank's poor performance in 2014, when profits fell to 800 million rubles ($10.5 million, by today's exchange rate)—almost 126 less money than it earned in 2013. Given these troubles, it's little surprise that the bank also cut its staff by 3.6 percent, and the remaining employees saw their salaries fall by 9.2 percent.

Rostelecom. Executives at Russia's leading long-distance telephony provider earned a whopping 67 percent more in 2015 than the year before. The average annual salary for the company's top managers grew to 612 million rubles ($8 million). Ordinary employees got a pay raise, too, earning 8.7 percent more, on average. The company freed up part of that cash by laying off some of its staff—6.7 percent, to be exact.

RusHydro. The head honchos at RusHydro, the Russian state's hydroelectricity company, managed to double their income in 2015. On average, the company's top executives brought in a cool 1.8 billion rubles ($23.5 million) on the year. Ordinary employees didn't fare as well. RusHydro fired 5 percent of its workers and those who got to stay were forced to swallow an 8.9-percent cut in pay.

These figures were collated at the news agency RBC by Anastasia Yakoreva, Maria Zholobova, and Elena Myazina.

Thanks to the more successful top managers, the overall change was zero: meaning, last year's aggregate average earnings among executives of all the companies in our sample changed exactly zero percent.