Russia’s income inequality reached its highest level since 2007 in 2025, with the official Gini coefficient rising to 0.422 from 0.410 in 2024, according to Kommersant daily citing Rosstat.

As followed by IntelliNews, demographics and equality were main national goals in the economic platform presented in 2024 when Vladimir Putin was sworn in for his latest six-year presidential term.

Russia’s poorest regions have indeed been the biggest winners from the massive spending on full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, which has gone some way to undoing Russia’s vast income inequality. The war in Ukraine was seen as creating a new middle class in Russia. 

However, in 2025, the equality gains could have been reversed, the reports from Kommersant and The Bell suggest.

Notably, the measuring of income inequality could have become less accurate, as a newly introduced Rosstat methodology that adjusts for taxes and regional income differences produced a substantially lower reading of 0.375 for 2025.

Rosstat announced in April that it would begin publishing an additional version of the internationally recognised Gini coefficient based on disposable incomes after taxes and adjusted for regional differences in purchasing power. 

The state statistics agency said the revised approach reflects structural changes in Russia's tax system, including the introduction of a five-tier personal income tax scale and a new family tax deduction programme for low-income households with children.

The methodological revision has significant implications for the government's national development targets. Under a presidential decree signed by Putin in 2024, Russia aims to reduce the Gini coefficient to 0.37 by 2030 and 0.33 by 2036. 

Under the previous methodology, inequality moved in the opposite direction in 2025, increasing to 0.422, a level previously recorded only in 2007. Under the revised methodology, however, the coefficient already stands at 0.375, much closer to the 2030 target.

Economists cited by Kommersant daily broadly supported the methodological change. Olga Zolotareva, director of the Centre for Demography and Statistics at the Institute for Economic Strategies, said the new calculation would allow policymakers to assess the effectiveness of tax redistribution measures while accounting for regional differences in living costs. 

Marina Kartseva, deputy director of the INSAP centre at the Presidential Academy, noted that calculations based on disposable income are widely used internationally by Eurostat, European statistical agencies and the World Bank. However, Darina Medvednikova of the Presidential Academy argued that even the revised methodology cannot fully capture inequality because a significant share of income remains in the shadow economy and cannot be measured accurately, according to Kommersant.

A separate analysis published by The Bell suggests that Russia's war economy has contributed to a renewed increase in inequality despite the initial rapid wage growth and large military payments. 

The publication noted that the Gini coefficient had fallen from 0.421 in 2010 to 0.398 in 2022 before reversing course during the full-scale military invasion of Ukraine and returning to 0.422 in 2025. 

The Bell argues that "the war [in Ukraine] destroyed all these achievements, pushing inequality back to the levels of the early 2010s." The publication also noted that the official funds ratio, which compares incomes of the richest and poorest 10% of the population, rose to 16 in 2025, the highest level since 2013, while the decile coefficient reached a record 7.5.

The increase in inequality has been driven by labour market distortions created by the war, The Bell argues. Labour shortages caused by demographic trends, mobilisation, battlefield casualties and emigration pushed wages sharply higher. 

Average monthly wages reportedly increased from RUB57,000 ($782) in February 2022 to RUB104,000 in February 2026. However, recent Rosstat data suggest that income growth is now strongest among higher-income groups. 

The Bell notes that wage income accounts for 90% of total income among the wealthiest decile of households compared with 53% among the poorest, meaning rapid wage growth disproportionately benefits better-paid workers.

Analysts cited by The Bell also pointed to growing wage inequality between sectors. Salaries in the highest paid industry, tobacco manufacturing, were reportedly 11-fold higher than in the lowest paid sector, clothing production, at the beginning of 2026. 

Wage growth has been particularly strong in defence-related industries and in smaller industrial cities that host military production facilities. According to the publication, employees and regions connected to state defence spending have emerged as the principal beneficiaries of wartime economic policies.