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Russians on the brink: a new wave of bankruptcies has swept the country
Over the past three years, more than a million Russian citizens and businesses have declared bankruptcy, reports the DEITA.RU news agency.
According to the Arbitration Court data for 2020, only 186,338 bankruptcy cases were filed in all local courts. But in 2021, this number has already increased by 105,674 (292,012 per year). In 2022, there were another 58 thousand such claims. The total number was 350,000. In 2023, about 460,000 bankruptcy applications were filed. In the first nine months of this year, another 381,000 bankruptcy applications were filed.
Since 2020, the total number of bankruptcy applications from individuals and legal entities has exceeded 1.6 million.
Looking at the statistics of one court, it becomes clear that most claims are filed by ordinary citizens. Thus, over the past two and a half years, more than 14.7 thousand Primorsky residents and legal companies have filed bankruptcy cases. According to the Arbitration Court of Primorsky Krai, 4,571 claims were filed on bankruptcy issues in 2022. Of these, 309 were for legal entities, 33 were for individual entrepreneurs and 4,229 were for individuals.
"In 2023, 5,472 applications were filed, of which 722 were filed against legal entities, 30 against individual entrepreneurs, and 4,720 against individuals," the Primorsky Arbitration Court added.
At the same time, the number of claims is not decreasing this year. According to court materials, more than 48 thousand claims have already been registered in the database, 42 thousand of which concern individuals.
For example, Anton Rublev (name changed) from Primorye, inspired by his friend's stock market success, decided to try investing, but soon found himself in a debt hole. Having started the rise and won $100,000 in one day, he soon lost more than a million dollars, including money from the sale of foreclosed apartments. To cover his losses, "first I started taking out loans, and when I couldn't repay the loans, I started borrowing money from people," concluded the bankrupt man, who is already preparing for bankruptcy proceedings.
It should be noted that in September, an amendment came into force allowing citizens with a mortgage to file for bankruptcy. This means that the number of bankruptcies will increase. At the same time, just a year ago, 47 million Russians took out loans from banks and microfinance organizations, and about 11 million of them had to repay three loans at once. In total, more than 1.1 million people have been declared bankrupt since 2015.