In 2025, the number of personal bankruptcies in Russia exceeded 500,000 for the first time. More than 50,000 people were declared bankrupt each month, writing off about 67 billion rubles in debt. Over 2.5 years, from early 2023 to July 2025, Russians wrote off at least 2.1 trillion rubles. An economist who asked to remain anonymous said this still does not pose a systemic risk to banks.
The procedure has existed since 2015. As one example, the publication cites 52-year-old Andrey Chalkevich from Rostov: after losing the ability to repay his loans, a plot of land in Azov and household appliances were sold, including a washing machine, an old Samsung phone, a television set, and a broken refrigerator. The sales brought in about 200,000 rubles, of which creditors received 160,000.
According to Novaya Gazeta Europe’s research, during the first nine months of 2025 almost 72,000 unique lots belonging to about 50,000 people were put up for sale on the EFRSB registry and the Torgi-Rossii platform. Cars were auctioned most often, followed by land plots and housing. Only 23% of lots were sold at or above the starting price, and on average property was sold for roughly one-third below the initial valuation. Only 41% of lots found buyers.
The reporters also describe the case of Moscow resident Sergei Khodas, whose mortgaged apartment was nearly sold because of debts, but the property was removed from the bankruptcy estate after his wife repaid the mortgage. The article notes that sales of mortgaged primary housing within bankruptcy remain relatively rare.
In 73% of proceedings, bankruptcy managers recover nothing for creditors because debtors usually have no assets other than their sole residence. The publication links the rise in bankruptcies to the expansion of unsecured lending and microloans. In the first half of 2025, microfinance institutions issued 1 trillion rubles in loans, 2.2 times more than in the first half of 2023, while the number of people with three or more MFI loans rose over two years from 600,000 to 1.6 million.
There is no direct legal ban on taking new loans after bankruptcy, but banks have tightened their policies significantly since 2023. According to the United Credit Bureau, getting a new loan in the first year after bankruptcy is now almost impossible, and later no more than 3% of applications are approved, usually on harsher terms.