What the consolidated balance is
Each Russian region has a consolidated budget: the region's own budget together with the budgets of the municipalities inside it. The finance ministry adds all of them up and publishes the result every month in its brief information on the execution of the regions' consolidated budgets, known as Appendix 6. The balance is revenue minus spending across the whole regional tier of government.
This is a different number from the federal budget deficit. The federal budget pays for defence and services federal debt; regional budgets carry much of the spending on schools, hospitals and roads. The two are linked by money flowing from the federal level to the regions.
How the monitor builds the number
Appendix 6 reports totals from the start of each year. The monitor turns them into single months and adds up the latest twelve, so each reading is the balance of the regions over the past year. Like the federal deficit, it is a twelve-month sum; unlike it, it is not divided by GDP. The figure stays in roubles and is not adjusted for inflation, because both registered anchors are sums of money in the same units.
The indicator was added on 21 August 2026. The amendment record gives the reason: regional deficits end up on the federal doorstep, and nothing the monitor tracked at the time measured them.
The anchors, and the path since 2021
The pre-war anchor is the 2021 result: in the finance ministry's series the regions together ended the year with a surplus of ₽0.661 trillion. The trouble line is a twelve-month deficit of ₽2.5 trillion, about 1.1% of the 2026 GDP estimate. Unlike the anchor, that line is a registered judgment rather than a measured pre-war fact; it was fixed before any reading was scored.
The same series shows how far the regions have moved. The twelve-month balance stood at +₽0.051 trillion at the end of 2022, −₽0.200 trillion at the end of 2023, −₽0.298 trillion at the end of 2024 and −₽1.538 trillion at the end of 2025.
Why regional gaps reach the federal budget
A region with a deficit has few places to turn, and most of them lead back to Moscow. The federal budget pays dotations to balance regional budgets, including from the government's reserve fund; one such order in September 2026 was announced as money for healthcare, although the act itself calls it balance support.
It also lends. Regions owe the federal budget for past budget loans, and the government writes off up to two-thirds of that debt. Decree No. 1095, published on 28 August 2026, moved repayments due in 2026 to 2030 and let regions whose estimated fiscal capacity was no higher than 0.9 (below average) spend the money freed on the war. For short cash gaps, the Federal Treasury can lend to regions for up to a month. In 2026 it does so as a one-year experiment under decree No. 1015, which leaves the choice of participating regions to the finance ministry; the ministry announced on 1 September that every region could now borrow, at 0.1% a year.
Each of these routes can move a regional financing need onto the federal budget or its balance sheet. That is why the monitor calls regional budgets the second front of the budget.
An aggregate hides the spread
A single consolidated number can mislead. In its regional economy report of September 2026, the Bank of Russia found the regions as a whole in surplus for January to July, but almost all of that surplus came from Moscow city and Moscow region. On the report's own figures, the rest of the country taken together was in deficit. An aggregate surplus can therefore coexist with many regions in difficulty, and the monitor's figure does not show which.
Class and trigger
Regional budgets are a class-2 indicator. The state that publishes the figures has an incentive to manage them, but a budget shortfall is self-evident. On its own a class-2 reading cannot trigger a verdict; it needs a second class-2 indicator, such as overdue receivables, past its own line at the same time.
What the balance cannot tell you
The balance is a flow over twelve months, not the regions' stock of debt, and it does not show how the gap was financed. A region that borrows from a bank and one that receives a federal write-off can report the same balance. Federal transfers can also move a gap from one tier to the other without changing the combined strain on the budget system.
For the full chain of which these budgets are one part, see how Russia finances the war.
The live reading
Below this guide is the latest rolling twelve-month consolidated balance of the regions and its score: +₽0.661 trillion is 100 and −₽2.5 trillion is 0. It changes when the finance ministry publishes the next month of regional budget data.