Press Release, 14.07.2025

Photo by Alexander Manzyuk, Kommersant

The  Esli Byt Tochnym (To Be Precise) project has published an analysis of Russians’ incomes from 2022 to the first quarter of 2025, according to which inequality is growing in the country. Despite sanctions for some and state assistance for others, the rich have become richer and the poor poorer. Researchers note that the growth of inequality in 2023 in our country is record-breaking since the early nineties, while in 2022 inequality sharply decreased due to economic shocks for the rich and state support for the poor, over 2023-2024 the Gini index (an indicator of the level of inequality in society) increased by 2.5%,  to 0.408.

The incomes of the richest group are growing faster than those of other Russians for the first time in ten years. This happened due to sharp salary growth, especially in highly paid sectors, as well as benefits from high deposit rates available primarily to the wealthy. Among the poorest, the share of wages in income is lower, and households are predominantly composed of children, students and pensioners, explain the authors of the “To Be Precise” project.

Economist and member of the Political Committee of the Yabloko party Yevgeny Gontmakher notes that the figures characterising inequality in Russia during the special military operation are not surprising. Starting from 2023, when the military-industrial complex was fired up, the incomes of those connected to it sharply increased.

The so-called “wage race” in its most substantial part is ensured by direct budget injections into military production and generous payments to active participants of the special military operation. Although payments to special military operation participants do make some of the poor somewhat richer, they still do not reduce inequality, Yevgeny Gontmakher explains:

“A person worked in a village or small town, earning 30,000 – 40,000 roubles per month, and after signing a contract with the Ministry of Defence, besides a lump sum payment (from hundreds of thousands to several million roubles), he receives more than 200,000 roubles monthly. Meanwhile, nothing special is happening in the civilian sector – its ‘freezing’ is already noticeable, including regarding wages. And inflation further devalues these incomes.

One must not forget about pensioners either – the income level of those who no longer work has long stagnated, despite planned indexations. Low-income families with children have gained somewhat in income in recent years, as they have begun receiving special benefits, but the general trend towards deepening inequality has not changed because of this.

As for the level of income differentiation in Russia now, it is, certainly, higher than citizens would like to see. Therefore, a feeling of ongoing social injustice is widespread in society.”

Earlier, Yabloko presented a detailed analysis of the socio-economic situation in the country and specific proposals for overcoming inequality, noting that the longer the special military operation continues, the more difficult it will be to cope with poverty in the future.

“We are convinced that the initial and necessary step for overcoming poverty is concluding a ceasefire agreement, normalising relations with Western countries, modernising the economy and ensuring real freedom of entrepreneurship,” Yabloko stated.

Doctor of Economics Yevgeny Gontmakher confirms that overcoming inequality is impossible without political changes:

“We should not, certainly, be talking about a programme of ‘take everything away and redistribute’. We need a different economy in which freedom of entrepreneurship (primarily small and medium-scale) will be a reality, the state budget will be genuinely socially oriented rather than military-police oriented. And this, in turn, is impossible without radical change of all domestic and foreign policy in Russia, which the Yabloko party insists upon.”

Yevgeny Gontmakher is

a member of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko. Doctor of Economics.