In the first quarter of the year, Russian corporate bankruptcies fell by 46.2 percent compared with the same period in 2022, dropping to 1368 cases. The figures come from the Unified Federal Bankruptcy Information Register, Fedresurs, and also show a 0.9 percent decrease in observation transactions to 1807 for the same timeframe.
Aleksey Yukhnin, head of Fedresurs, noted that the statistics reflect the impact of a moratorium on filing bankruptcy petitions by creditors for all entities except developers. This moratorium was in effect from April 1 to October 1, 2022, and had a delayed influence into early 2023, as creditors and court practice adjusted to the pause. Yukhnin suggested that the postponement ended a period during which very few new bankruptcy cases were initiated, and that the recorded activity in early 2023 essentially returned to the level seen at the start of 2022, when monthly filings typically ranged from 700 to 900.
Fedresurs data indicate a notable shift in who initiates bankruptcy proceedings. The share of cases brought by bankruptcy creditors rose from 68.9 percent in the first quarter of 2022 to 81.3 percent in the first quarter of 2023. In contrast, the proportion of petitions filed by the Russian Federal Tax Service declined significantly, from 23.3 percent to about 9 percent in the same period. Meanwhile, debtors increasingly began bankruptcy proceedings themselves in 9.5 percent of cases, up from 7.3 percent a year earlier, with employee-initiated filings remaining very small at around 0.5 percent.
Regional leaders in bankruptcy activity for the first quarter of 2023 included Moscow and the Moscow region, followed by St. Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk Territory, and the Khabarovsk Territory, according to the registry data. The Fedresurs update also notes a rise in out-of-court settlements and settlements outside formal bankruptcy proceedings, reflecting a growing preference among companies to resolve financial stress through informal channels rather than formal bankruptcy routes.
Overall, the data depict a turning point after the 2022 moratorium period, with bankruptcy dynamics gradually aligning with pre-moratorium patterns and a shift in petitioning sources that underscores the evolving landscape of corporate insolvency in Russia. These observations come from the official registry maintained by Fedresurs and are used by regulators, financial professionals, and researchers to track trends in corporate distress and restructuring activity over time [Fedresurs registry data].