In the second quarter of 2026, Russian courts declared 140,000 citizens and individual entrepreneurs bankrupt. That was only 0.9% more than in the same period a year earlier, compared with growth of 36.4% in the second quarter of 2025. The figures were published by Fedresurs.
For the first half of the year, the number of court bankruptcies involving individuals rose by 6.8%. Growth in out-of-court procedures, which can be completed free of charge through MFC public service centers, also slowed sharply: in the second quarter, 17,900 people began such procedures, up 13.1% year on year. Over the half-year, the figure increased by 9.1% to 34,300 procedures. A year earlier, the growth rates had been 25% and 24.3% respectively.
At the same time, courts became much more likely to close bankruptcy cases without writing off debts. In the first six months of 2026, the number of such rulings increased 2.9-fold, while their share rose from 1.1% to 2.4%.
Fedresurs linked the slowdown to tougher court practice: courts are increasingly refusing to discharge debts for citizens viewed as acting in bad faith, according to service head Aleksey Yukhnin.
Courts also approved restructuring plans more often, allowing debtors to repay under a new schedule. The number of such decisions grew 2.4 times over the year, but they remain rare, accounting for only 1% of all procedures versus 0.4% a year earlier.
The picture was different in the corporate sector. In the second quarter of 2026, courts opened insolvency proceedings against 1,900 companies and farming enterprises, up 21% from a year earlier. For the half-year, the number of corporate bankruptcies rose by about 11% to 3,500, though it remained 20.8% below the average level for the first halves of 2019–2025.
The Federal Tax Service became more active in seeking corporate bankruptcies. In the second quarter, it filed 6,600 applications with the courts, 3.4 times more than a year earlier. The tax service’s share among initiators of corporate cases rose from 15.1% to 22.7%, while the share of creditors fell from 68% to 60.4%.