Paul Goble
Staunton, Aug. 21 – Drought has seriously reduced the harvest across the Russian Federation this year. Russian officials have acknowledged some losses but seriously under-reported just how bad the situation is; and farmers say Moscow has done little for them although it has sent help to major agro-industrial concerns.
In some places, yields are own 80 percent or more, although officials in Moscow have suggested that the decline has been no more than 20 to 30 percent, a figure that has convinced at least some in the Russian capital that the situation is not as critical as those in farming areas say (newizv.ru/news/2025-08-20/regiony-prosyat-moratoriy-na-bankrotstvo-fermerov-iz-za-zasuhi-a-krestyan-ne-sprosili-437690 and regionvoice.ru/zasukha-kak-nacionalnaya-chs-ot-sibiri-d/).
Small farmers complain that they have not received help from the authorities something especially galling as Moscow has given aid to agro-industrial concerns, and they are demanding tax relief and the end to bankruptcy proceedings against themselves. If that doesn’t happen, they predict this year’s harvest will be truly devastating to the country as a whole.
The farmers also point out that declining yields are leading to declines in the export of agricultural products, despite Moscow’s claims, and that these declines will cost the Russian government ever more income that it had been counting on.
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