Russian oligarchs transfer nearly 400 billion rubles to state budget following Putin’s appeal

FINANCE 18.08.2026 / author:
Russian business forum; Alexander Shokhin; Russian Ministry of Finance

Major Russian entrepreneurs have transferred hundreds of billions of rubles to the federal budget of the Russian Federation as voluntary contributions. By mid-August, the total amount of these gratuitous receipts reached 383.69 billion rubles. This is reported by the portal PromPolitInform, citing the Telegram channel of The Moscow Times, based on data from Vedomosty.

A sharp increase in donations began after Vladimir Putin met with representatives of large businesses in March. At this event, the Russian president urged entrepreneurs to financially support the state treasury amid a significant budget deficit.

Prior to the specified meeting, voluntary contributions from non-state companies to the Russian budget amounted to only 15.6 billion rubles. However, the following month, the volume of donations increased tenfold, reaching 159.7 billion rubles.

Dynamics of filling the Russian treasury

Subsequently, the dynamics of capital accumulation remained high. In May, the amount of contributions increased by 45.5%, in June the figure rose by another 27%, and during July and the first half of August, revenues were replenished by another 30%.

Alexander Shokhin, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, confirmed the fact of financial assistance to the state treasury by businesses. According to him, businessmen transferred money not only from their corporate accounts but also involved their own family funds.

Expectations of the Russian government

The head of the business association assured that these transfers were purely voluntary, and no fixed amounts had been set for mandatory payment. At the same time, the Russian government expected to receive approximately 300 billion rubles from business representatives in the form of such voluntary contributions by the end of the current year.

Illustrative photo: Presidential Press and Information Office / CC BY 4.0

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