Russia

Every region or municipality implementing PB in Russia establishes its own regulatory framework (government decree in regions or administration regulation in municipalities), containing the rules for participation, procedures, and eligibility criteria. Some regions adopted regional PB laws that set up the minimum annual investment financing amounts for IB projects. Additionally, there is a national level framework aimed to support developing PB.
Specifically, PB is mentioned as one of priorities in the document “Main Directions for Action of the Government of the Russian Federation till 2024” (published September 29, 2018). Another national document - “the Concept Paper on Increasing Efficiency of Budget Expenditures for the Period 2019-2024” (approved by the Government of the Russian Federation on January 31, 2019) states the need for developing mechanisms for citizen participation (on the basis of IB) as a way to finding solutions for social and economic development, and for the dissemination of regional and municipal IB practices. Finally, changes in the national level legislation (specifically in the Budget Code and the Law on Local Self-governance) aimed to improve the regulations on co-financing initiatives of the population are actively debated.

The main recent innovation in Russia PB process relates to strengthening focus on social inclusion in PB through improving mechanisms and procedures for engaging in PB groups with special needs, primarily, people with disabilities. Two regions (Sakhalin oblast and Yamal-Nenetz Autonomous Oblast) explicitly embedded specific mechanisms of inclusion for disabled groups in the design of their practices. These mechanisms include capacity building for socially oriented NGOs and volunteers aimed at enhancing the participation of disabled, support to participation of people with disabilities ​in public discussions, ensuring that representatives of people with disabilities vote at meetings of delegates and participate in co-design, etc. This process is supported by the World Bank through analytical and methodological support, organization of national level knowledge sharing exchange, and bringing international experts to provide ongoing advice at the stage of design and implementation of “inclusive” PBs. Strengthening social inclusion focus in PB has resulted in involving in the dialogue that has been coordinated by national and regional ministries of finance new actors, such as social protection ministries, agencies in charge of the work with NGOs and social organizations, associations of organizations of people with disabilities, etc.

​Growth of PBs implemented at the municipal level. Historically, PB in Russia has been mainly implemented at the regional level (with majority of the regions having their own PB program). The new trend is that municipalities are getting more and more active in introducing their own PBs. The number of municipal PBs grew from less than 10 in 2017 to 65 in 2019. A national leader is Yamal-Nenetz Autonomous Okrug where various PB models (22 PBs in total) are implemented in municipalities of three types: cities, municipal raions2, and settlements. Expansion of School Student PBs. Successful piloting School PB in Sakhalin oblast in 2018, resulted in growing interest to this model in other regions. Specifically, School PB would be launched in Yamal-Nenetz Autonomous Oblast, Saint-Petersburg, Altai Krai, Bashkortostan Republic and others. Promoting of this model is strongly supported by the national Ministry of Finance as part of the budget literacy agenda. Growing market for consultancy in the area of participatory budgeting. The number of independent actors providing implementation support to regions and municipalities in the area of PB is rapidly growing. Most active regional consultant groups represent Kirov, Bashkortostan, Saint-Petersburg, and Krasnoyarsk regions.

Developing PB in Russia benefits from the support of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation (MoF), specifically, through a joint project with the World Bank “Strengthening Participatory Budgeting in the Russian Federation in 2016-20” that was launched in April 2016. The main goal of the Project is the development of PB practices on a large scale in regions through replication of the most successful regional PB models. This is done by supporting regional pilots, strengthening the capacity of local stakeholders for implementing PB, and setting up an institutional infrastructure and a system for information exchange (including at the international level). Currently the Project covers 57 regions that represent 2/3 of all Russia regions.​​