‘Voluntary donations’ by Russian businesses to state budget hit a record sum since start of 2026

In the first eight months of 2026, Russian businesses contributed a record 383.69 billion rubles to the federal budget, nearly doubling the total from the previous year. The Russian business daily Vedomosti revealed these figures after analyzing data from the government's Electronic Budget information system, highlighting them as the highest voluntary donations since the "voluntary donations" line item was introduced to the Tax Code in 2022.

Traditionally, this line item, which appeared in the Tax Code that year, received most of its funds from departing foreign companies' "exit tax." However, during 2026, the primary source of these contributions shifted to voluntary donations from prominent Russian businessmen.

The concept of "voluntary donations" was initially proposed in March during a private meeting between President Vladimir Putin and the country's leading businessmen. The Kremlin maintained that the idea originated with the businessmen, but sources, including the independent Russian media outlet The Bell, suggested that Putin himself had encouraged the businessmen to fund the ongoing war in Ukraine.

According to Vedomosti, using data from the Finance Ministry's website, voluntary donations to the federal budget amounted to 15.6 billion rubles from January to March, skyrocketing to 159.7 billion rubles in April and increasing by an additional 45.5% in May to reach 232.3 billion rubles.

The Russian budget deficit, exacerbated by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, amounted to 6.455 trillion rubles, or 2.8% of GDP, between January and July 2026, surpassing the government's projected targets.