Moscow began to cut spending for the first time in 13 years

Moscow budget expenditures will be reduced due to an unplanned slowdown in revenue growth, city mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. The authorities plan to reduce civil servants and employees of institutions subordinate to the mayor’s office, as well as optimize costs for the investment program. About 3 thousand people may lose their places. The last time the city budget was cut was 2013.

Details . In the first two months of the year, Moscow budget revenues grew by only 2% against the planned 6.5%, Sobyanin said at a meeting of the presidium of the city government. The authorities had to cut costs in order to balance the budget.

• ️The city authorities decided to reduce the staff of civil servants of the capital's executive authorities by 15%. It is also planned to reduce the number of officials-managers of individual subordinate institutions, Sobyanin said. He did not specify how many people would be laid off. In 2018, the civil service and personnel department of the capital government reported that a total of 19.7 thousand officials work in the Moscow government. 15% of this number is 2955.

• ️In addition, it is planned to reduce investment costs by 10%. In particular, certain improvement projects and cultural events will be postponed or completely cancelled. At the same time, the renovation and construction of the metro will continue without changes, Sobyanin promised.

• ️The head of the city emphasized that reducing expenses will allow the city to guarantee its social obligations to residents, as well as continue to finance expenses “aimed at assisting the Russian Ministry of Defense, supporting military personnel and members of their families.”

• ️For 2026, the Moscow budget provides for revenues of 5.9 trillion rubles, expenses at 6.4 trillion rubles. According to the plan, half of the spending should go to social programs, including assistance to participants in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

• ️In June 2025, Sobyanin said that the capital authorities are not planning budget cuts for 2026.

• ️ The last time Moscow cut expenses of the adopted budget was in 2013. Then spending was reduced by more than 140 billion rubles; the cuts included spending on transport and social infrastructure, as well as education. Maxim Reshetnikov, who at that time was the head of the capital’s department of economic policy, named among the main reasons the stopping of rising prices for Russian exports and rising costs of enterprises.

• ️Expenditures were also reduced by 81 billion rubles in 2012 due to a decrease in expected tax revenues. And in 2009, Moscow authorities cut costs several times due to the consequences of the global financial crisis ( 1 , 2 , 3 ).

Context . Moscow has become at least the third region to announce budget cuts for this year. In the Chelyabinsk region, expenses were reduced by 2.2 billion rubles, in the Primorsky Territory - by 3 billion rubles.

• ️The total deficit of unconsolidated budgets of the regions of the Russian Federation (excluding local ones) at the end of 2025 increased by more than 1 trillion rubles, to 1.478 trillion rubles. This is 3.6 times more than it was in 2024, and became a record figure for the entire period of observation since at least 2020, ACRA experts calculated for Kommersant.

• ️There are also problems with the federal budget. On Wednesday, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin spoke about a meeting with the participation of Vladimir Putin, at which the solution to the problem of the federal budget deficit was discussed for “many, many” hours.