The Head Of The Duma's Budget Committee Predicts Russia's Fate As That Of The USSR
- 20.06.2025, 15:01
"The state may not have enough money."
The Soviet Union collapsed not because of Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, but because the state ran out of money to maintain the welfare of the population, and this situation may be repeated in Russia. The head of the State Duma's Budget and Taxes Committee Andrey Makarov said this at Sber's "business breakfast" at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, writes The Moscow Times.
"Socialism collapsed only because it failed to fulfill its 'Basic Economic Law,' which was to 'maximize the satisfaction of the ever-increasing needs of workers,'" Makarov said. "The needs of workers will continue to grow constantly. And the state may not have enough money for the ever-increasing needs," he emphasized.
Makarov said it is impossible to solve problems without state impetus, but there is also no possibility to constantly increase budget expenditures. According to the Ministry of Finance, the liquid assets of the National Welfare Fund, which were used to patch budget "holes" and pay for megaprojects, have decreased threefold since the beginning of the war, and as of June 1 fell to Br2.8 trillion. According to estimates by the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, this reserve may be completely exhausted in 2026.
"The state cannot constantly finance. National projects increase in money, can not constantly increase state expenditures. Without this mechanism of private business participation, the system will not fly," Makarov said.
But business practically does not participate in the national projects, from which the state expects to accelerate economic growth, technological breakthroughs and the solution of demographic problems. And this is a consequence of dysfunctional institutions and, in particular, the institution of private property protection, Makarov noted, explicitly alluding to the wave of nationalizations that covered companies worth more than 2 trillion rubles.
He reminded that the taking of private property is based on the de facto abolition of the statute of limitations. "Statutes of limitation, they begin to disappear not from the moment when the event occurred, but from the moment when the prosecutor's office found out about it. And not just found out, but when this event for some reason the prosecutor's office did not like," Makarov noted.
He recalled that "to protect the rights of bona fide purchasers, both real estate and securities, any property" in 2001 Vladimir Putin demanded. "Maybe we should admit honestly that <�...> we did not manage to solve the task that the president set 25 years ago. But we did not succeed," Makarov said.
He also criticized notions of Russia in a "ring within a ring of enemies." "Unfortunately, lately the discussion of economic issues is very often reduced to the search, I would not like to say enemies of the people, but to the search for enemies. It feels like there are enemies sitting somewhere who constantly want to damage business, damage our economy, damage the country. This is mainly due to the ignorance of those who can do nothing more than offer to print money," said Makarov.
"I would like to say that we have already been through all this. And we remember what it led to," he added.
The unexpected bold speech by Makarov, who has been a member of United Russia for more than 20 years and has headed the key, budgetary committee of the Duma for 14 years, caused surprise among those gathered at Sber's "breakfast." "Andrei has just made such a speech, a red-letter speech in a sense, that I have the feeling that I am one step away from a naked party, although I have come to a very decent place," said Ksenia Sobchak, who was present at the event.
"Who likes what, after all, everyone chooses for himself the party where he feels more comfortable," Makarov replied.
On the eve of the SPIEF-2025 about the exhaustion of resources that allowed the economy to grow, the head of the Central Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina said, and the head of the Ministry of Economic Development Maksim Reshetnikov warned that the country is "on the verge of recession." According to Rosstat, economic growth has slowed threefold, from 4.1 percent last year to 1.4 percent in the first quarter of 2025, and civilian industries have begun to shrink. The military-inspired economy grew in the face of sanctions "because free resources were tapped," Nabiullina said.
These include labor, production capacity, the banking system's capital reserves, and money from the Federal National Bank of Russia. "We need to realize that many of these resources are really exhausted," the Central Bank head said.