Russian regions, amid budget problems, have started to massively cut healthcare spending. In 2026, almost a quarter of the regions (19 out of 82) made such a decision. This follows from the budget reporting, which was studied by “Important Stories”. The figure turned out to be a record for the entire period of the war against Ukraine: until now, no more than 7 regions per year have cut spending on this item, and in 2025 there were five such regions.
In total, the regions will save about 107 billion rubles on the medical sector this year. In percentage terms, the largest cuts in medical spending were made in the Vologda region — by 39% (6.5 billion rubles). The healthcare budgets of the Irkutsk and Kemerovo regions will lose more than 30% of last year’s budget (more than 7 billion rubles in each region). The Moscow (40.6 billion rubles) and Volgograd regions (5.5 billion) have cut their medical budgets by a quarter.
Russian regions ended 2025 with a total deficit of 1.478 trillion rubles, which is 3.6 times more than the level of the previous year. The figure became a record for all observation periods. The sharp increase in the deficit occurred because the regions, with total revenues of 22.6 trillion rubles (plus 4% compared to 2024), spent 24.1 trillion rubles (plus 9%). As a result, 74 regions faced a budget deficit, compared to 50 a year earlier (The Moscow Times).
