Sredneuralsk, a satellite city of Yekaterinburg, has officially been declared insolvent. By order of the governor of Sverdlovsk region, external financial management has been imposed.
The trigger was expenditures exceeding revenues by 18 million rubles. Against the backdrop of the oblast’s overall budget deficit of over 30 billion rubles, this amount seems minor, but it has signaled a deeper financial crisis.
Difficulties balancing local budgets have spread across most regions. In Tomsk, officials warned in the summer that external management might be imposed: due to problems resettling unsafe housing, debt reached nearly 2 billion rubles, with a deficit of 5 billion. In Samara, local authorities also…