Russia’s federal budget deficit reached 5.877 trillion rubles, or 2.5 percent of GDP, in January through April 2026, the Finance Ministry reported.
The deficit in the same period a year earlier was 2.931 trillion rubles, meaning the gap between spending and revenue had almost doubled.
Russia’s original 2026 budget projected a full-year deficit of just 3.786 trillion rubles, or 1.6 percent of GDP. After only four months, the actual deficit was already roughly 55 percent above that annual target.
Federal revenue fell 4.5 percent year on year to 11.721 trillion rubles. Oil and gas revenues fell particularly sharply — by 38.3 percent — to 2.298 trillion rubles.
Non-oil-and-gas revenue, by contrast, increased 10.2 percent to 9.423 trillion rubles.
Spending rose 15.7 percent and reached 17.598 trillion rubles. The Finance Ministry attributed the large early-year deficit primarily to front-loaded financing and advance payments on government contracts.
The shortfall has political significance because of Russia’s enormous state spending on defense and the security sector, as well as the risk of additional inflationary pressure.
The Finance Ministry maintained that budget execution remained within its structural parameters and at that point did not call for an immediate revision of the budget law.