Where the money flows. NI found out how the Kremlin distributes subsidies to regions

The Ministry of Finance is sounding the alarm: in June 2025, oil and gas revenues of the federal budget decreased by 33.7% year-on-year. Due to low hydrocarbon prices and a strong ruble, the treasurywill lose 25.82 billion rubles in July.

Moscow will survive on its own income, but most regions of Russia are subsidized. Their well-being directly depends on revenues from the federal budget. The Law on the Budget for 2025 states that 63 subjects of the Russian Federation receive financial support. The remaining 26 regions feed themselves and everyone else.

New territories have burst into the top of the most subsidized regions. The Donetsk People's Republic will receive 77.8 billion rubles this year - this is immediately the second place. The Lugansk People's Republic has entered the top ten regions most dependent on Moscow - it will receive 54 billion rubles. In total, the new regions will receive 153.5 billion rubles from the federal center in 2025 to balance the budget deficit. Crimea and Sevastopol are demanding another 33.8 billion rubles. Well, no one said that Russia's expansion would be cheap.

It is easy and convenient to divide regions into subsidized and donor regions. It is immediately clear who earns money and who is supposedly a parasite. In reality, everything is more complicated. "NI" conducted a study, examined the latest Treasury reports and found out who in the Russian Federation actually lives at someone else's expense.

The division of regions into donor and subsidized ones occurs only on one basis: if a region, republic or territory receives subsidies to equalize budget provision, the region is a subsidized one. If it does not receive them, the region works as a donor.

But money for budget equalization, that is, for patching budget holes, is only one of many types of subsidies. Regions receive funds from Moscow for social payments, subsidies for farmers, salary increases for public sector employees, and so on. In total, gratuitous receipts can exceed budget equalization subsidies by tens of times. Sometimes donor regions receive such support that even the most hopeless subsidized regions would envy them. Monetary assistance from the federal budget goes to absolutely all regions.

There is logic in such distribution: targeted subsidies depend on the region's population. The more people live there, the more money is needed for social and other payments. In order to fairly assess the amount of money absorbed, NI calculated how many subsidy rubles are allocated per resident of the region.

It turns out that the Caucasian regions, where palaces are built with minimal incomes and where you can easily meet people in super-expensive cars, performed very modestly.

A very clear picture is emerging: the regions that are most expensive for the federal budget are the Far East and the Far North.

With the current tax distribution system, none of the entities can feed themselves. Take, for example, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug: there is a lot of gas, but few people - only half a million people. Subsidies for budget equalization are not required, but other gratuitous assistance amounts to 53.8 billion rubles, or 103,105 rubles per year per person. Reduce these payments - and the finances of both people and businesses will suffer greatly.

And here the question of fairness of distribution of money arises. Samara region is far from the richest region, it ranks 34th in terms of population welfare. In Moscow, there are 36,756 rubles per capita, and city authorities can afford to spend billions on reconstruction of courtyards, even contrary to the opinion of local residents.

So, the reduction of the federal budget can hit the residents of absolutely any region. Everything depends on what subsidies and grants will be cut and how the local authorities will behave, how much money they will be able to knock out of the Kremlin.