Russia's budget deficit exceeded the annual plan in three months; the Kremlin is looking for money from businesses and citizens - intelligence
Kyiv • UNN
In the first quarter of 2026, Russia's deficit amounted to 4.6 trillion rubles, with a plan of 3.8 trillion. The Kremlin is introducing excess profit taxes and strengthening financial oversight.
Three months – and Russia has already "eaten up" more than it planned to spend for the entire year. The federal budget deficit for the first quarter of 2026 reached 4.6 trillion rubles – and this despite the fact that the entire planned annual figure is 3.8 trillion. This was reported by the Foreign Intelligence Service, writes UNN.
Now the Kremlin is frantically looking for where to get money. One of the most revealing episodes is the postponement of the ban on betting in bookmakers for incapacitated, minors, and debtors. It would seem to be a basic social protection measure. But the Ministry of Finance directly admitted: its implementation threatens the loss of up to 27 billion rubles in tax revenues and another 14 billion in targeted deductions for sports. The number of bookmaker clients could decrease by a third. Protecting the vulnerable is too expensive for the Russian budget
The Foreign Intelligence Service notes that this is just one fragment of a large-scale fiscal mosaic. Putin instructed the government to work out the introduction of a windfall tax – a tax on excess profits for 2025 at a rate of 20%. The previous precedent – a similar levy for 2021–2022 – brought 318.8 billion rubles to the budget. Now the appetites are different, and businesses will feel it first.
In parallel, the customs service began to additionally charge duties on goods from "unfriendly" countries imported through the states of the Eurasian Economic Union. Rates range from 15% to 50%. Clothes, cosmetics, non-food products – everything will become more expensive by at least 15–30%. In other words, the sanctions pressure on Russians is now also being intensified by their own state.
A separate story is total financial supervision. The new law will give tax authorities automatic access to the central bank's data on individuals with "unexplained" incomes of 2.4 million rubles or more. The Central Bank, in turn, will be obliged to "identify any anomalies." Where the line between tax administration and total surveillance lies is a rhetorical question
Among other initiatives are the introduction of VAT on foreign goods from marketplaces (gradually: 7% in 2027, 14% in 2028, 22% in 2029), the legalization of online casinos with a projected income of 100 billion rubles annually, and an increase in property tax for owners of three or more apartments.