Degradation Instead of Recovery: How russia Is Losing Business

The number of registered businesses in russia has fallen to its lowest level since 2010. As of September 1, 2025, only 3.17 million enterprises remained in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities of the rf. In 2023, there were 3.29 million.

The reasons for this are the high key rate of the central bank, which remained at 21 % per annum for six months, and the tightening of tax control.

In 2024, the russian tax service liquidated 100,000 legal entities, in 2023 – 172,000, and in 2022 – more than 214,000. Instead of improving the market, this leads to a weakening of competition, a reduction in jobs and a decrease in innovation activity.

In the first half of 2025, the “business mortality” rate in the rf was almost one and a half times higher than its “birth rate” – for the first time since 2022, when companies left the market en masse after sanctions were imposed. Most often, trading, construction, and industrial enterprises were closed.

Despite a slight reduction in the key rate to 17 %, business in the rf continues to decline. russia’s economy continues to sink into a prolonged crisis that is affecting key industries and depriving small and medium-sized businesses of opportunities for development.