Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
The Kremlin has made a central promise to the families of its war dead. Across Russia, regional governments are quietly rewriting it.
In late October, with Moscow lawmakers lining up to approve the biggest defense budget in Russian history, governors in the regions that supply much of the Ukraine war’s manpower moved in the opposite direction.
One after another, they signed decrees cutting, delaying or scrapping regional one-time survivor payouts promised to relatives of soldiers killed in combat.
At least 12 regions have reduced or abolished their death benefits since the start of autumn 2026, Kyiv Post reported, compiling the measures from regional government decrees. The sharpest cuts have come in the past three weeks.
Belgorod Oblast, the frontline region hit daily by Ukrainian strikes, slashed its payment from 3 million rubles (about $36,700) to 1 million rubles (about $12,200) in a decree signed by Governor Alexander Shuvaev on October 30.
Saratov Oblast cut the benefit tenfold, from 1 million rubles to 100,000 rubles (about $1,200), effective November 1. Samara Oblast went further: on October 15, Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev signed a decree abolishing the regional payment entirely.
The core federal death compensation package—mandated by presidential decree and federal insurance law at 5 million rubles (roughly $61,000), plus statutory indexed life insurance of over 3 million rubles—remains intact and funded by Moscow.
What the regions are slashing or eliminating are their own discretionary, “top-up” bonuses, which local governors rolled out during 2022–2024 to compete for recruits and show loyalty to the Kremlin.
Regional coffers run dry
Smolensk Oblast cut its payment from 1 million to 700,000 rubles (about $8,600) on October 21. Stavropol Krai postponed November and December disbursements until 2027.
The pattern follows cuts earlier in the year in Kemerovo, Omsk, Ulyanovsk, Orenburg, Kirov, Bashkortostan and Khakassia, Meduza reported, drawing on regional registers and Russian-language outlets including Interfax and Kommersant.
The combined deficit across Russia’s regional budgets reached 134.2 billion rubles ($1.64 billion) as of September 2026, according to the federal Accounts Chamber, with projections pointing toward a far larger gap by year-end.
The war has sharply widened the hole: local sign-on bonuses, equipment subsidies and survivor payouts all land on regional ledgers before Moscow’s reimbursements arrive.
“Everything necessary” – and a tenfold cut
The gap between federal rhetoric and regional reality was on open display on October 29. That day the State Duma approved Russia’s 2027 federal budget in a first reading, with 372 deputies in favor, 51 abstentions and none against. The bill devotes 17.1 trillion rubles – roughly $202 billion, over a third of all federal spending – to defense, a 27 percent increase over the previous plan, according to budget documents seen by Reuters.
Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin told the chamber that “all questions related to security, defense and providing everything necessary for participants of the special military operation and their families have been resolved,” The Moscow Times reported.
Three days later, the Saratov decree took effect and cut the regional payment for a dead soldier’s family from about $12,200 to about $1,200.
Fraud fears from the pro-war right
The cuts have unsettled even voices loyal to the war. Pro-war Russian blogger Anastasia Kashevarova wrote, as reported by Kyiv Post, that the state’s handling of combat payouts “would trigger financial depletion and the emergence of organized fraud groups that would make money off payments to soldiers and their families. That is exactly what has happened.”
Researchers who track regional fiscal strain say the cuts are unlikely to spill into open unrest. “I certainly would not expect social discontent to evolve into a nationwide protest movement,” Harvard researcher Irina Busygina told The Moscow Times, predicting that families would direct anger at their governors rather than at the Kremlin.
The budget bill moves to its second Duma reading in the coming weeks, before the Federation Council and President Vladimir Putin’s signature.
