Big Russian businessmen have provided the budget with 220 billion rubles free of charge. This amount exceeds the annual forecast for their income, which is estimated at 1.7 billion rubles, reports the publication "Expert".
It notes that the occasion for the "voluntary contributions" was the closed meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with the oligarchs on March 26, at which he announced that he intended to continue the war and asked for help from business. At least three of the participants have expressed their readiness to provide "very large sums" - Suleiman Karimov, Oleg Deripaska and Vladimir Potanin.
The budget is bursting at the seams
For the period from January to April, the deficit in the Russian budget reached 5.877 trillion rubles - 1.6 times more than the 3.786 trillion planned for the year. Experts from the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy predict that by the end of the year the deficit may exceed twice the planned indicators.
For "national defense" in 2026, 12.9 trillion rubles have been set aside - 29.3 percent of all spending. Together with the funds for the entire power unit, the amount reaches 17 trillion rubles.
The economy is at its limit
Senior officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank have warned Putin that war spending is moving towards an unacceptable level, and the economy has begun to contract for the first time since 2023, reports "Bloomberg". They have proposed a reduction in defense spending, but Putin supported the Ministry of Defense and ordered all other spending to be cut, except for the military.
In May, the government lowered its GDP growth forecast to 0.4 percent. "The Russian economy has entered the death zone," says Alexandra Prokopenko of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre.
The 300 billion rubles expected by the end of the year from the oligarchs will be able to cover only 10-15 percent of the unplanned deficit, according to economist Emil Abayev.
Author: Sergey Romashenko