Financing of political parties (2020-2023)

Since 2020, Russia has faced an unprecedented restriction of basic human rights and freedoms because of the coronavirus pandemic. Among other things, a ‘’vote’’ was held on amending the Russian Constitution and parliamentary elections were held in this situation. This was immediately followed by new restrictions after February 2022.

Against this backdrop, political parties in Russia have not suffered financially, but their financing have become more hidden from public scrutiny: they have learned to effectively circumvent rules on financial transparency and restrictions on the size of donations.

This report compiles data on the financing of political parties in Russia for the years 2020-2023. Data on party financing on the eve of the single day of voting in 2024 will be partially published only in July 2025.

1. The current system of financing political parties creates conditions for the dominance of one political party and does not promote competition and equality. The income of political party “United Russia” exceeds the total income of all other political parties combined by 1.8 times and accounts for 66.8% of the total income of all political parties over the last four years.
2. The share of state budget funds in the total income of all political parties is almost half - 48%, which goes only to the "parliamentary five" (and until 2022 - to the "four"). Nearly 60% of the budget funds go to political party “United Russia”.
3. Over the last 10 years, the financial reporting of political parties has become less transparent. This is due to the large number of foundations and non-profit organisations whose sources of funding are not public. For example, in 2023 political party “United Russia” received more than 1.2 billion roubles (12.5% of the party's total income) as donations from foundations linked to the party. The party received another 1 billion roubles from the foundations in the form of interest-free loans, essentially circumventing the limits on the size of donations.
4. It has become common practice for large donations to come from several legal entities belonging to the same owner or related persons. This enables him to donate more than the amount allowed by law to the party's account. 
5. Donations from individuals are also used to conceal the real source of the money.
6. The analysis of donations to political parties allowed us to identify several election campaigns that were "contractual" ("imitation") in nature. Meaning a party agreed to present a candidate just to make it look like competition but with no intention what so ever to win. We were able to identify at least six legal entities that made rather large donations to several parties: the undisputed leader among the parties in terms of the number of common donors with other parties was the Pensioners' Party.

Read more in our report (in Russian)