St. Petersburg will cut social spending and increase payments to participants in the special military operation

The St. Petersburg authorities have proposed a significant revision of the city’s 2026 budget expenditures. The draft amendments have been sent for review. According to the document, the budget’s expenditure side could be cut by 70.2 billion rubles—to 1.58 trillion rubles.

The largest cut will be in the “Economy” section—36.7 billion rubles. Officially, the need for these changes is explained by the postponement of funding for non-priority projects.

In particular, St. Petersburg’s transportation system, excluding the metro, could lose 9 billion rubles in funding. This includes, among other things, surface transportation and the purchase of rolling stock.

Education spending may be cut by 15.5 billion rubles. Another 13 billion rubles may be cut from programs for the major renovation of educational institutions and children’s recreation facilities.

Healthcare is set to face a cut of 8.5 billion rubles. Specifically, this involves funding for outpatient clinics, their renovations, and the prevention of infectious diseases.

Funding for housing and utilities may be reduced by 6.8 billion rubles. The main cut will affect the affordable housing program.

There are also plans to reduce subsidies to the capital repair fund by 0.5 billion rubles.

Separately, nearly 1 billion rubles may be cut from funding for the inspection and repair of civil defense shelters, according to “Fontanka.”

In addition, the draft budget calls for spending cuts in the following areas:

• urban improvement—by 2.3 billion rubles;
• the fuel and energy sector—by 2.7 billion rubles;
• road repairs – by 1.9 billion rubles;
• the purchase of automation equipment and software—by 1.2 billion rubles;
• environmental protection – by 1.1 billion rubles.

According to RBC’s estimates, funding for culture and cinema may also be cut by 4.8 billion rubles.

Amid cuts to a number of civilian expenditures, the St. Petersburg authorities plan to increase funding for payments to participants in the war against Ukraine and their families by 6.4 billion rubles. This was announced by Smolny.

Additional funds are also earmarked for other areas. Specifically, 4.8 billion rubles are planned to be allocated for salaries of public sector employees, and another 1.6 billion rubles for medications for eligible categories of citizens.

At the same time, certain cultural institutions may receive additional funding. Subsidies to concert organizations are set to increase by 254 million rubles, and “Lenfilm” may be allocated 298 million rubles to increase its authorized capital.

The St. Petersburg authorities attribute the spending cuts to the high cost of loans, measures taken by the government and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation to “systematically cool down the economy,” and the need to limit the issuance of new loans.

At the same time, the changes could lead to a significant reduction in the city’s budget deficit. According to the draft, it could decrease from 189 billion to 108.8 billion rubles.

Thus, the proposed amendments call for the reallocation of tens of billions of rubles among various categories of the city budget: spending on education, healthcare, transportation, housing, urban improvement, and civil defense is planned to be reduced, while funding for certain social benefits and other items will be increased.

At the same time, St. Petersburg’s revenue in 2026 is projected to increase by 9.8 billion rubles—to 1.472 trillion rubles.

As a reminder, in Russia—an aggressor state—President Vladimir Putin signed a decree setting the authorized strength of the armed forces at 2,441,630 personnel. 

Russia, as an aggressor state, plans to allocate 17.1 trillion rubles to defense in 2027. This is approximately 27% more than the originally planned 13.5 trillion rubles and is the highest figure since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2022.