Russia’s arbitration courts handled 292,800 insolvency cases in the first half of 2026, the highest figure recorded since the current series began. As more households and individual entrepreneurs seek protection from creditors, a full release from their debts is becoming less certain.
The caseload was 74,500 cases higher than in the first six months of 2025, a 34 per cent increase. The surge shows the scale of financial strain reaching the courts, although the figures do not identify one single cause for every bankruptcy.
A system under pressure
Russian media reported on 2 November 2026, citing Judicial Department data, that the courts had examined 292,800 insolvency cases between January and June. The equivalent figure for the first half of 2025 was 218,300; across the whole of last year, courts handled almost 487,000 cases. The figures were reported by Russian media and circulated by the Telegram channel Mozhem Obyasnit.
A separate measure records the number of new formal procedures. According to the Unified Federal Register of Information on the Activities of Legal Entities, known as Fedresurs, courts introduced 277,500 bankruptcy procedures involving individuals and individual entrepreneurs during the first half of 2026. That was 6.8 per cent more than in the same period a year earlier.
The two totals cover different stages of the legal process. Cases examined can include matters opened before the reporting period, while newly introduced procedures count those formally entering the system during it. The gap between them is therefore expected. Together, the figures show both a heavy backlog and a continuing flow of new debtors.
Personal bankruptcy was introduced in Russia in 2015. Since then, more than 2.2 million citizens have received bankruptcy status, according to Fedresurs. In 2025 alone, almost 568,000 people became bankrupt, while a further 68,000 completed an out-of-court procedure.
What began as an exceptional legal remedy has become a routine way of dealing with unmanageable debt. Its expansion also makes the courts’ decisions on discharge increasingly important: even a small change in the share of refusals affects thousands of people.
Bankruptcy does not guarantee a clean slate
In the first six months of 2026, courts issued 5,500 decisions refusing to cancel debts. That was almost three times the number recorded a year earlier. The share of refusals rose from 1.1 per cent to 2.4 per cent, Fedresurs data shows.
The stated grounds include concealing property or income and submitting inaccurate information to the court. Such findings relate to the individual cases in which they are made. The aggregate rise does not prove that every rejected debtor deliberately withheld information, nor does it establish that every court is applying an identical approach.
For borrowers, the practical consequences are nevertheless significant. Someone who enters bankruptcy seeking relief may remain liable for debts if the discharge is refused. Assets that can legally be realised may also be sold, leaving the debtor with fewer resources while some obligations continue.
Courts are increasingly using restructuring as another outcome. They approved 2,790 compulsory debt-restructuring plans in the first half of 2026, 2.4 times as many as in the same period of 2025.
A restructuring plan can spread repayments over a longer period, but it does not necessarily remove the debt. For a borrower already struggling to meet payments, the legal process may therefore produce an extended schedule rather than a financial reset.
The figures show a measurable shift in the range of outcomes: more people are entering the system, while more cases end without a full discharge. They do not, on their own, prove claims that the courts are systematically acting for banks or microfinance companies.
The debt problem starts before the courtroom
The insolvency figures sit within a wider deterioration in loan repayments. As of 1 April 2026, 13.1 per cent of unsecured consumer loans were classified as troubled, according to the Bank of Russia. The central bank has also said lenders are still dealing with late repayments on loans issued in 2023 and 2024.
Expensive borrowing can make it harder to refinance an older loan with a new one. Accumulated debt, insufficient income and rising household costs can further weaken a borrower’s ability to keep up with payments. For individual entrepreneurs, business revenue and operating costs add another layer of risk because commercial and personal finances may be closely linked.
The available figures do not break down the contribution of interest rates, inflation, income changes or individual financial decisions. They do show that repayment stress extends beyond those already appearing in bankruptcy proceedings.
The presence of individual entrepreneurs in the formal-procedure data also points to pressure on small businesses and the self-employed. But the numbers supplied do not establish how many firms have closed, how many jobs have disappeared or whether local tax revenues have fallen as a result. Those consequences cannot be calculated from the rise in insolvency cases alone.
Russia’s bankruptcy system is now processing demand on a scale far beyond its original role as a last resort. For the hundreds of thousands entering it each year, the crucial question is no longer simply whether the law provides a route into court. It is whether that route ends the debt — or merely converts an immediate crisis into a longer period of supervised repayment.
