The kremlin Is Eating Through the National Welfare Fund and Preparing New Taxes for the Population

The share of oil and gas revenues in the russian state budget is decreasing dramatically. In 2026, it will drop to a meager 20-22 %, although earlier, according to minister of finance of the rf Anton Siluanov, the figure was 50 %.

The kremlin is frantically looking for ways to patch up the budget “hole” next year. Three possible “improvements” are currently being considered, but all of them will ultimately hit ordinary russian citizens hard. The first is to once again take money from russia’s National Welfare Fund, but today it itself needs support after previous “borrowings”. The second option is to increase the national debt, but this entails significant additional costs for servicing and repaying loans. And the last “proven” option is to raise taxes and fees.

Economists at the institute of economic forecasting of the russian academy of sciences have officially acknowledged that the rf’s economy has “exhausted the factors of economic growth that were previously in place”. Their report points out a decline in household consumption of the rf in the first half of 2025 to 2.7 % – the worst figure since the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine. In 2023, it was 7.4 %, and last year it was 5.4 %.