russia Decreases  Support for Small Businesses, Directing Resources to the War

In the first half of 2025, state support for small and medium-sized businesses in russia almost halved compared to the same period last year.

The reasons for this were a reduction in preferential lending, “budget optimization”, and a switch to selective assistance only for entrepreneurs in key sectors – manufacturing, logistics, IT, and tourism. The number of recipients decreased by 22 %.

Instead, the kremlin is not cutting back, but only increasing spending on the war against Ukraine, which has become the main priority of the russian budget. For russian authorities, financing aggression is more important than supporting their own citizens and developing the economy.

In the period 2025–2030, it is planned to allocate 330 billion rubles to support small and medium-sized businesses, which is by 20 % less than in the previous six years. This will lead to an increase in unemployment and a slowdown in the economy, as small and medium-sized businesses provide about 29 million jobs in the rf.