cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11422601

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Every other stream brings a new face and a peek into the mind of another ‘ordinary Russian’ — proud to have started a war, eager to get the next ‘coffin payment,’ and totally unaware of how democracy works.

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Apart from outright coercion, Russia continues to bribe fighters into the army by writing off overdue loans and paying millions of rubles for signing military contracts. Some regions have increased such payments to over $51,000, despite local budget deficits. So-called ‘coffin money’ for the dead comprises 38 percent of all Russia’s military expenditures in 2026.

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As signing a contract becomes the only social lift for many Russians from economically depressed regions, this has made Russian economic inequality not just a domestic issue but a catalyst to continue its war efforts in Ukraine.

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“They live in poverty... For Russians, life at home is worse than being at war. They’re trying to escape this life of theirs, where they’re completely insignificant, and they have to survive on payday loans. Russians want to fight because they’re offered great money for it."

Quite an illustrative example is Tuva, a region near the Russian border with Mongolia. In 2022, it was deemed the poorest. It has no railway; buses run irregularly; access to education, employment, and, in some districts, to basic utilities like water, sewage, and heating is a luxury.

In Tuva, one in 200 residents was killed on the battlefield in Ukraine. Other poor regions like Transbaikal, Chukotka, and Buryatia are also sending overwhelming numbers of their men to war to improve their economic condition.

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The group that probably benefits from Russia’s war against Ukraine the most is the soldiers’ family members who receive millions of rubles for sending recruits to the army and even more for their death. Since 2023, the influx of contract payments and ‘coffin money’ into Russia’s poorest regions, which provide most of the recruits, has led to a sharp increase in household bank deposits. For instance, in Siberian regions, savings grew drastically, by about 19 percent in Altai, 33 percent in Buryatia, and the record-breaking 57 percent in Tuva.

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At the same time, recent data shows that these sudden riches are rather fleeting. Ukrainian intelligence reports that some regions started paying less for newly signed military contracts in 2025. Recently, at least six regions have cut ‘coffin money,’ too. Namely, soldiers from the Bashkortostan and Ulianovsk regions get 20 times less money than in 2025, while the Orenburg region canceled local bonuses and now provides only federal payments.

If this trend spreads across the country, it might further slow mobilization.

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