Russian regions stop paying soldiers' salaries, cut bonuses, and the central bank sells gold for the first time

Cracks in Russia's wartime economy: regional areas stop paying soldiers' salaries, cut bonuses, and the Russian Central Bank has unprecedentedly sold real gold on the Moscow market. November 24, 2025 (Comprehensive foreign news report) A quiet fiscal crisis is spreading between Russian regions and the military. After a brief "wartime prosperity" in 2024, the budget deficits of Russia's federal subjects have sharply deteriorated in 2025. Multiple regions are no longer able to maintain the high enlistment bonuses used to attract volunteers, and some have even taken extreme measures to directly suspend regional subsidies for contract soldiers. At the same time, the Russian Central Bank has sold physical gold reserves on the open market for the first time to fill the growing war funding gap.

Local finances "starving":

From millions of rubles in bonuses to "zero" Over the past two years, Russian regions have competed to offer large "enlistment bonuses" to meet recruitment targets. At its peak, some wealthy regions paid as much as 3-3.6 million rubles (about $3-3.6 million) at once, far exceeding the federal minimum standard. However, this "money for heads" model came to an abrupt end in the autumn of 2025. The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) announced on November 21 that due to "depleted budget funds and unpredictable recruitment numbers," it would immediately stop paying regional bonuses and monthly subsidies to all new contract soldiers. The previous bonus promised by the region was 2.6 million rubles. Yakutia is not an isolated case. At least nine federal subjects have reduced the bonuses from 2-3.6 million rubles to 400,000-1 million rubles between June and November 2025, with a reduction of up to 75%-90%.

Among them:

Samara Oblast: 3.6 million rubles → 400,000 rubles

Orenburg Oblast: 2 million rubles → 400,000 rubles

Tatarstan Republic: 3.1 million rubles → 800,000 rubles

Belgorod Oblast: 3 million rubles → 500,000 rubles

Saint Petersburg directly canceled the payment of bonuses already promised to volunteers. Soldiers of the Russian Armed Forces' operational reserve (BARS) complained on social media that they had not received regional subsidies for months. Russian Finance Minister Siluanov publicly warned on November that "the country may soon be unable to pay soldiers' wages."

From surplus to huge deficit: A one-year flip In September 2024, the 89 federal subjects of Russia had a total budget surplus of 472.1 billion rubles; one year later, by September 2025, this number turned into a deficit of 724.8 billion rubles, worsening by more than 15 times. Currently, 67 regions have deficits, accounting for 75%. War spending is the main driver. In 2025, Russia's defense and security budget accounted for 40% of the federal expenditure, amounting to 1.31 trillion rubles (approximately 145 billion USD). At the same time, oil and gas revenue fell by 27%, and the federal government has continuously reduced unconditional grants to the regions for the third consecutive year, forcing local budgets to "cool down".

The central bank breaks the taboo: First sale of physical gold In November, the Russian Central Bank sold physical gold on the domestic market for the first time, rather than the usual book transfer. According to several traders and analysts, this is the first time since the early 2000s that the central bank has actually used its gold reserves to exchange for ruble liquidity. The gold holdings of the Russian National Wealth Fund (NWF) have dropped from 405.7 tons before the war to 173.1 tons, and the size of liquid assets has shrunk by more than half, leaving only 51.6 billion USD.

Selling gold is both to alleviate budget pressure and to diversify after the excessive share of RMB assets. "When a country starts eating its 'family heirloom', it means that the conventional sources of funds have been exhausted," said an unnamed economist in Moscow.

Double winter on the front line and the rear: In the Donbas front, soldiers are still fighting in trenches at minus 20 degrees Celsius; while in the rear, the volunteer recruitment channel that once relied on high bonuses is drying up.

Data from the Russian Ministry of Defense shows that the number of contract soldiers recruited in the first half of 2025 decreased by 23%, totaling only 127,500 people. Several regional officials have privately admitted, "We can't even calculate how many people we need to recruit next year, nor do we have the money to fulfill our promises." As the winter offensive of 2025 continues, the Kremlin faces a difficult choice: either continue printing money and exacerbate inflation or significantly reduce the intensity of military operations. But so far, both the front line and the rear have heard the sound of the financial chain tightening. (Diao Gong Tian Lang)

Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1849803710777351/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.