Russian businessmen are facing a wave of defaults from state companies, which are no longer honoring their contractual obligations within public procurement regulated by law 223-FZ. According to the daily Vedomosti, which cites data from the Federal Antimonopoly Service and the Corporation for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), the number of disputes has increased by 20% compared to the entire previous year.
Since January 2025, 1,173 administrative cases have been opened regarding the non-payment of public procurement contracts, compared to 980 in 2024. More seriously, the number of complaints from small businesses has tripled: if in 2024 there were 200 reports (worth 1.5 billion rubles, about 14.7 million euros), in 2025 there have already been 482 complaints, totaling 3.6 billion rubles (about 35.4 million euros).
Elena Dybova, Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, confirms the scale of the phenomenon and says that many state institutions simply have nothing left to pay with. The economy is slowing down, profits are falling, and the budgets of public institutions are collapsing along with the federal treasury.
