Planned danger: regions are required to budget expenses for emergency prevention
Starting this year, the reserve funds of the regions should take into account funds for the prevention and elimination of natural disasters, said Alexander Kurenkov, head of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, at the government hour. Izvestia investigated how the initiative correlates with current federal programs to reduce emergency risks, whether the current volume of regional reserve funds is sufficient to cover emergency costs, and whether increased regional responsibility may lead to stricter federal control over the financial discipline of subjects.
New rules
According to the new regulations, starting in 2026, when forming their budgets, regions must take into account in reserve funds the amount of funds intended for the prevention and elimination of emergency situations, the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations reminded Izvestia.
"This is at least 0.1% of the total tax and non—tax revenues and subsidies for equalizing budget provision for the next fiscal year," the ministry explained.
This requirement will become mandatory when drawing up regional budgets, starting with the budgets for 2027 and the planning period 2028-2029, the press service of the Ministry of Finance told Izvestia.
"The changes introduced do not envisage strengthening federal control and do not limit the budgetary independence of the regions. The consolidation of this standard is aimed at forming balanced parameters of regional budgets, taking into account the risks of emergency situations. At the same time, the regions independently determine the specific amount of reserve funds in excess of the established minimum level," the ministry said.
The funds of the emergency response reserve funds, which were not used by September 1 of this year, can be used for other purposes. The procedure for such redistribution is determined by the regulatory acts of the regions.
Protecting forests from fire requires an annual concentration of serious resources and a large number of specialists, Alexey Venglinsky, deputy head of the Federal Forestry Agency, told Izvestia. Today, more than 27,000 employees are involved in the forest fire protection system. Among them are aviation observers, paratroopers and soldiers of ground units.
All of them are provided with modern facilities: the services have at their disposal almost 15,000 units of specialized equipment and about 80,000 items of equipment necessary for fire prevention and extinguishing.
"To increase the effectiveness of forest fire protection at the federal and regional levels, measures are being taken annually to increase funding for this area," he said. — In particular, in 2026, federal funding for the protection of forests from fires, based on the average burning rate, amounts to 26.6 billion rubles. Compared to 2025, it increased by 6.9 billion rubles.
If the level of fire danger reaches the scale of an emergency, additional funds are allocated to the subjects from the reserves of the federal level — from the government fund and the unallocated resources of the Federal Forestry Agency, Alexey Venglinsky noted. This money makes it possible to reimburse the costs associated with strengthening the grouping of forces, using aviation to monitor the situation, as well as paying for forest firefighters during periods of the greatest workload.
Since the fight against forest fires is a common task, the regional authorities also invest their own funds for the prevention and protection of the forest fund, he stressed. Such joint financial responsibility directly increases the effectiveness of fire extinguishing operations.
Area of responsibility
The initiative fits into the current federal emergency risk management system, Vladislav Bukharsky, Associate Director for Sovereign and Regional Ratings at Expert RA agency, told Izvestia. If there are general federal powers, the regions have their own area of responsibility, which is fixed in Federal Law No. 68-FZ. Therefore, the formation of regional reserve funds looks like a logical solution, especially since not all emergencies relate to the federal level.
— It is incorrect to assess the sufficiency of reserves in the same way for all regions, since the approaches to their formation differ, — the expert noted. — By the end of 2025, the total volume of regional government reserves amounted to about 0.4 trillion rubles, or 1.6% of expenditures, while individual entities reserved over 5% of the budget.
The new requirement is not aimed at equalizing all indicators, but at setting a minimum level of reserves in all regions. While maintaining budget parameters, this will ensure the total amount of emergency reserves of at least 20 billion rubles in 2026. The requirements are low, so strengthening federal control over the financial discipline of the regions is unlikely to be significant.
The practice of emergency response in the regions has shown that in the early days, the willingness of local authorities plays a crucial role, Olga Pozdnyakova, head of the Popular Front, told Izvestia. Analytics". It is important to have a clear plan of action in advance: how to inform residents about the threat level, support measures and places to seek help, how to address issues of water pollution, the appearance of wild animals, temporary accommodation of people and their pets.
— No less important is the availability of financial resources to help the victims and recover. Previously, funds for these purposes were often allocated on a residual basis, which is why the regions had to rely on federal support, the expert believes.
The powers in the field of emergency prevention and response are distributed between the municipal and regional levels, and in most regions appropriate systems with the participation of local units are already in operation, Dmitry Zemlyansky, director of the Research Center for Spatial Analysis and Regional Diagnostics of the IPEI Presidential Academy, emphasized in an interview with Izvestia.
— Funds for these purposes were previously provided in the budgets, but due to the deficit they were often not enough. At the same time, the deterioration of the budget situation, associated with lower incomes and rising costs, significantly limits the regions' ability to form significant reserves, he believes.
The topic is really relevant for the regions, but the approach to it should be based on statistics and the real level of threats, Andrei Zhukovsky, a leading researcher at the Institute of Regional Economics and Inter-Budgetary Relations at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia.
"The natural risks in the country are unevenly distributed," he reminded. — The Far East is facing high seismic and volcanic activity, whereas in Siberia, the Urals and a number of eastern regions, forest fires are the main danger. This objectively requires a different level of readiness.
Taking into account such a difference, in his opinion, it is logical to build a system of differentiation of regions according to the degree of risk and on this basis to form reserve funds. Practice shows that timely federal intervention is able to effectively solve acute problems, as it happened during the elimination of the consequences of extreme weather events in individual regions.
"Additionally, it is advisable to strengthen federal coordination, focusing on the most vulnerable territories," he added. — An important element of such a system should be the expansion of the fleet of specialized aircraft and equipment, primarily for the regions of Siberia and the Far East, with a corresponding increase in funding and staffing.
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