April 19, 2026

In the Kremlin's Debt


In the Kremlin's Debt
Can never have enough. The Russian Life files.

On April 16, Russian state media announced that the Kremlin would take on R31 billion ($408 million) in debt held by 16 regions throughout the country.

The sum is split between the republics, federal subjects, oblasts, and regions of Buryatia, Kalmykia, Crimea, North Ossetia, Khakassia, Krasnoyarsk, Volgograd, Ivanovo, Irkutsk, Kurgan, Novgorod, Oryol, Rostov, Smolensk, Tambov, and Tver. That's a diverse list, representing locales firmly situated in European Russia, like Tver and Novgorod, as well as Caucasian regions like North Ossetia, war-torn areas like Crimea, and rural regions of the east like Buryatia.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said that the regions had used up their budgets developing urban infrastructure, modernizing housing, and upgrading industry; in other words, while they'd spent too much, they'd spent it on wise things. In a way, then, the assumption of debt is an incentive for other local governments to do the same.

The move comes shortly after R10 billion ($132 million) was written off for 11 Russian regions. Further, it's against a backdrop of widespread economic uncertainty, as Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues.

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