Problems and specific features of sub-federal budgets execution in 2015

Last year has been marked by worrying trends in the development of a budgetary crisis in Russian regions; the crisis became apparent in 2013, when regional authorities had to get into huge debts in order to provide finances for the social obligations in the framework of the presidential decrees of May 7, 2012. The budget process in 2015 was characterized by expanding negative trends in those regions that had previously been the engines of economic growth and budget donors, which contradicts the regional development strategy. The crisis response measures consist in a large-scale optimization of expenses. Despite an attempt undertaken by the Government to replace commercial borrowings with budget loans, there are still no prospects for solving the debt issue. On the contrary, expert forecasts predict a doubling of the debt stock in regions by the end of 2017. Cuts in the expenditures on human capital development should be considered as a new negative trend, naturally resulting in the deterioration of material well-being of Russians, which was expressed in the decline in their real incomes and raising poverty level...