Putin Urges Oligarchs to Voluntarily Fund War

Russian President Vladimir Putin told oligarchs in a closed-door meeting that they should voluntarily contribute money to support the war.

According to The Bell, citing sources familiar with the conversation, he framed these payments as ‘voluntary contributions’ to the state budget, which is currently experiencing a record deficit due to war-related spending against Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin also told representatives of big business that he plans to continue the fighting.

“We were told: we will keep fighting,” one attendee summarized his remarks. “We will advance to the borders of Donbas,” another added.

Some businessmen responded to the proposal during the meeting itself. Billionaire Suleiman Kerimov promised to contribute 100 billion rubles to the budget.

The initiative was supported by at least one other major Russian businessman present at the meeting, although he did not disclose the amount of his contribution.

According to the publication’s sources, the idea to “tap business in a difficult time for the country” came from Igor Sechin, head of Rosneft.

As a way to raise funds from big business, he proposed issuing war bonds.

The proposal to oligarchs comes amid a record deficit in Russia’s state budget and rapidly rising war expenditures.

The budget deficit by the end of 2026 could be twice as high as the 3.8 trillion rubles planned by the Finance Ministry. Revenues are expected to fall about 3 trillion rubles short of the planned 40.2 trillion, while expenditures, on the contrary, may increase by around 1 trillion, writes The Moscow Times.

It also adds that, according to Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND), the actual deficit of Russia’s federal budget in 2025 amounted to 8.01 trillion rubles instead of the officially reported 5.65 trillion.