Regions with Greatest Budget Problems No Longer Dying Rural Areas but Industrially Developed Ones as Result of Moscow’s Tax Policies, Grozovsky Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 2 – Because poor and declining agricultural regions have long received federal transfers and because industrial federal subjects haven’t but have had to rely more on their own resources, the latter are now “the most problematic regions” when it comes to budgetary problems, Boris Grozovsky says.

            That is a function of federal policies, the commentator from the Events and Texts telegram channel says, policies that mean industrial oblast and kray governments are expected to get the taxes they need from industry  (istories.media/opinions/2026/04/02/problemi-na-mestakh-chast-ekonomicheskikh-trudnostei-skrita-v-byudzhetakh-regionov/).

            Consequently, they have suffered far more in the last two years as industrial production has slowed or even gone into negative territory, while the historically impoverished agricultural regions – and many of these are non-Russian republics – have not because Moscow continues to give them more subsidies.

            Grozovsky documents how this difference has not only emerged but is intensifying in his article, one that suggests the Russian government may soon face more strikes as industry declines and governments in industrial regions cannot compensate for that at affordable rates – while the situation in the poorer regions may remain quieter in comparison.