The Russian government carried out a large-scale debt write-off operation to encourage infrastructure investments by federal regions. According to information provided by Ilya Tsypkin, Head of the Municipal Rating Department at AKRA, to RIA Novosti, a total of 276.8 billion rubles in budget loan debt belonging to 67 regions was written off since the beginning of 2025. This figure corresponds to approximately 12 percent of the total budget loan debts of these regions.
Tsypkin listed the regions that benefited the most proportionally from the debt write-off. The Altai Republic topped the list with 36 percent of its total debt at the start of the year written off. It was followed by Kurgan Region with 34 percent and Khabarovsk Territory with 32 percent. The Kemerovo and Tambov regions also ranked high on the list with write-off rates of 32 percent and 31 percent, respectively.
In absolute terms, the highest amount was written off in Moscow Region with 30.5 billion rubles. This constitutes 21 percent of the region's debt. Moscow Region was followed by Krasnodar Territory with 24.1 billion rubles (24 percent of its debt) and the Republic of Tatarstan with 23.7 billion rubles (26 percent of its debt). In Nizhny Novgorod Region, a write-off of 21.6 billion rubles was carried out, which corresponds to 17 percent of the region's debt to the federal budget.
The AKRA official stressed that the write-off amount determined for each region is directly proportional to the region's investments in modernization of housing and public utilities, evacuation of citizens from emergency housing, renewal of public transport, and other development projects. Tsypkin said, 'The conditions for writing off these budget loans in themselves encourage local governments to invest in the region's infrastructure and economy. This is expected to have positive economic effects in the long term.'
Crimea was at the bottom of the debt write-off list. Only 5.8 million rubles were written off for Crimea, corresponding to approximately 0.1 percent of the region's total budget loan debt. Also at the lower end of the list were the Nenets Autonomous Okrug with 99.5 million rubles (23 percent of its debt), the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug with 226.6 million rubles (3 percent), Zabaykalsky Territory with 241.4 million rubles (1 percent), and Murmansk Region with 364.5 million rubles (2 percent).
