The region has cut funding for bonuses for signing contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence
Authorities in Bashkortostan have officially acknowledged a decline in the number of citizens willing to join the Russian army through service contracts. This move coincides with severe regional budget deficits and the highest reported casualty rates among all subjects of the Russian Federation. This was reported by The Moscow Times citing Mediazona, according to the portal PromPolitInform.
In an explanatory note to the republican budget for 2027–2028, released on November 11, the local administration pointed to a specific cause for the budget revision. Due to a decrease in the number of contract recruits, the government decided to sequester funding for one-time payments for signing service contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence. The total allocation for this budget item was reduced from 13.6 billion to 12.6 billion rubles.
Casualties and recruitment challenges
Bashkortostan leads Russian statistics in absolute numbers of local residents lost in the war. As of November 2026, the confirmed number of local fatalities reached 11,990. The region has held the top spot on this list since September 2024, having surpassed the 10,000-fatality mark in July 2026.
The scale of losses accounts for nearly 0.3% of the republic’s total population. These figures are comparable to the official Soviet losses during the entire decade-long war in Afghanistan (1979–1989), which saw 15,051 Soviet military personnel killed.
Regional budget crisis
Beyond recruitment struggles, the republic is facing a critical fiscal gap. In the first half of 2026, the local budget deficit reached 17.1 billion rubles, accounting for nearly 71% of the annual target. An additional factor has been a 38% decline in profit tax revenue.
Due to the dire financial situation, local authorities have resorted to austerity measures, including reducing expenditure on street lighting and slashing regional death benefits for families of fallen soldiers by a factor of 20. Additionally, to bolster the treasury, Bashkortostan sold its remaining shares in PJSC ANK Bashneft to Rosneft.
Bashkortostan head Radiy Khabirov acknowledged the budget difficulties back in August. He stated that because borrowing on the open market is prohibitively expensive, the region has been forced to sell off public assets to cover ongoing operational costs.
Illustrative photo: Управление по государственной охране объектов культурного наследия Республики Башкортостан / CC BY 4.0
Read also: Russia massively cuts or cancels compensation payments for war dead
