The Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation published a report on the income and expenses of parties

In the third quarter of 2023, Russian parties earned more than in the same period of 2022, but spent even more, according to party financial reports published by the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation. In total, they raised nearly 1.3 billion rubles—twice as much as a year earlier. The total amount of expenses amounted to more than 5 billion rubles, and this also exceeds last year’s figures, although not so significantly (by 28%). Party revenues and expenses in the third quarter of 2023 should be assessed through the prism of the upcoming federal campaign of 2024, the expert explains.

The income of most Russian parties in the third quarter of this year increased significantly compared to last year, according to financial reports published last week by the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation.

Traditionally leading in terms of the volume of funds raised, United Russia attracted 935 million rubles to its accounts—twice more than a year earlier (then it was 474 million rubles). The parliamentary opposition lived much more modestly: the LDPR collected 39 million rubles, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation – 32 million, A Just Russia – For Truth (SRZP) – 28 million, and New People – just under 10 million. But in the top three in terms of income Two non-parliamentary parties entered at once – “Civic Force”, which collected almost 77 million rubles, and “Yabloko” (61 million rubles).

However, in general, the Duma opposition was doing better than last year, because then the income of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation for the same period fell to 17 million rubles, and for SRZP and “New People” – to 6 million and 2.9 million rubles. respectively. But the most impressive growth in 2023 was shown by the same “Civil Power”, whose revenues in the third quarter a year ago amounted to only 6 thousand rubles. The budget of “Communists of Russia” over the same period increased almost 10 times – from 4 million to 38 million rubles.

Quarterly income was reflected non-linearly on party expenses, although traditionally in July-September they spent more than they earned, because the final part of the regional election campaign falls in the third quarter.

The total expenses of the parties for this period, calculated by the Central Election Commission, amounted to about 5 billion rubles. (a year earlier – 3.9 billion), of which 570 million rubles were transferred directly to election funds.

Most of all – 3.2 billion rubles. – United Russia spent, the lion’s share of these funds (2.4 billion) went to the regional branches of the party. Another 414 million rubles. United Russia spent on propaganda, and the third largest expenditure item of the party in power was the maintenance of governing bodies (335 million rubles), and these expenses remain stable. But the budget for public events increased more than six times over the year: from 8.7 million to 60 million rubles. For the parliamentary opposition parties, the maintenance of regional branches also remained the main item of expenditure, but at the same time the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and New People placed an additional emphasis on propaganda (quarterly budget – 33 million and 10 million rubles, respectively), and the SRZP – on charity (the party relied on it spent 26 million rubles). Both “Civic Force” and “Communists of Russia” transferred almost all the money they received to election funds.

Political scientist Alexander Kynev believes that the growth of party budgets this year is quite justified: if in 2022 there were only six campaigns for the elections of regional parliaments, then this year there were more than three times more, so politicians had something to spend money on.

However, in general, the party members’ money situation has recently become very bad; everyone was saving on whatever they could, the expert notes, especially if we talk about non-parliamentary parties that do not receive money from the budget.

Mr. Kynev associates the sharp increase in the income of Communists of Russia with the recent change in party management (in the spring of 2022, Maxim Suraikin was replaced as chairman by Sergei Malinkovich): the party does not necessarily have more money, perhaps they simply began to treat reports more conscientiously, the political scientist argues . But “Civil Power” was not noticed in any public campaign this year, points out Alexander Kynev, so it is possible that some additional funding schemes were used here.

Everything is going in full accordance with the electoral cycle, Garegin Mitin, partner of the T&M consulting bureau, is sure: parties are beginning to accumulate funds for the upcoming presidential elections, and traditionally the growth of donations and contributions begins long before the official start of the federal campaign (it is scheduled for mid-December 2023). Many parties have already announced their participation in the 2024 presidential elections, the expert recalls. The growth of income and expenses of non-parliamentary parties, in his opinion, should also be assessed through the prism of the upcoming federal campaign.

Anastasia Kornya