Facing the threat of confiscation, the "rosoligarchs" donated more than $5 billion to the war effort

Russia’s federal budget will receive 471.7 billion rubles (approximately $5.17 billion) this year in the form of “voluntary contributions” from large businesses. Russian billionaires have agreed to transfer personal funds and assets from family foundations amid a massive wave of nationalizations of companies worth over 7 trillion rubles (about $76.5 billion) and the threat of criminal prosecution.

The massive influx of donations began after Vladimir Putin’s March meeting with representatives of big business. While contributions from non-profit organizations had totaled 15.6 billion rubles ($170 million) prior to this event, within a month that figure rose to 159.7 billion rubles ($1.75 billion), and by mid-August had reached 383.7 billion rubles ($4.2 billion).

According to sources, billionaires Suleiman Kerimov, Vladimir Potanin, and Oleg Deripaska offered to collectively transfer 460 billion rubles ($5.04 billion) in exchange for the Kremlin’s refusal to introduce a windfall tax. Despite these contributions, the Russian government decided to implement the tax anyway starting in 2027, expecting to receive an additional 200 billion rubles ($2.18 billion) annually from the companies “Norilsk Nickel,” Rusal, and Polyus.

The withdrawal of funds from businesses is taking place amid a rapid increase in Russia’s budget deficit, which is estimated at 7.3 trillion rubles ($79.8 billion) by the end of the year. In addition, the draft budget for 2027–2029 includes an additional 3.7 trillion rubles ($40.4 billion) in tax revenue, which will include raising the maximum personal income tax rate on passive income to 22%.

Source: The Bell

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