A Budget Crisis Has Begun In Russia's Regions

• 23.10.2025, 14:08

The deepest in a decade.

Russian regions have entered the deepest budget crisis in the last decade, and the situation will only get worse.

The Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine has reported that the situation is reported.

According to the SVR, the Arkhangelsk region with an annual budget of 156 billion rubles currently has only 50 million rubles left in reserve, the Volgograd region has 100 million rubles, and the Belgorod region has 200 million rubles. The situation in other regions of the Russian Federation is no better, and in some even worse.

Because of the budget crisis, Russian regions are forced to cut spending on education and health care. For example, the Irkutsk region is cutting spending on education and health care by 4.9 billion rubles. In 12 Russian regions teachers' salaries have been reduced.

To "patch up budget holes" many Russian regions are preparing to increase taxes for small businesses and transportation fees.

As of September this year, the total budget deficit of Russian regions amounted to 724.8 billion rubles. Revenues adjusted for inflation fell in 53 Russian regions. SVR believes that by the end of 2025, the budget crisis of Russian regions will worsen.

The fact is that they have no new sources of income, while expenditures are increasing. Due to the budget crisis, Russian regions are postponing the repair of infrastructure facilities. Even the repair of schools is postponed. For example, in Belgorod, the repair of music school No. 1 was postponed to 2026 due to lack of funding.