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Russian authorities have sharply reduced the number of approvals for dividend payments to unfriendly countries, RBC reports, citing a poll of lawyers. Approvals for payments to unfriendly countries have become "rare and selective," suggesting that the payments have effectively been suspended.

In 2022–2023, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank defined a policy for issuing authorisations for dividend payments to foreign members of Russian companies, determining that approval could go ahead on the basis that:

• total dividends do not exceed 50% of the net profit for the previous year;
• retrospective account is taken of how dividend payments were made in previous periods;
• company members or shareholders wish to continue commercial operations in Russia;
• the company and its impact on Russia's technological and industrial sovereignty are judged to be significant;
• the set KPI targets are reached;
• subject to KPI fulfilment, the dividend payments could be made quarterly.

However, since the beginning of 2026, a number of government departments have stopped submitting dividends for approval by the government commission. The experts polled by RBC identified several main reasons why dividends were not being allowed to be paid abroad, including non-compliance with informal requirements (e.g., regarding "social burden") and failure to meet quarterly KPI targets. So even if dividends are approved for the year, each quarterly report must be submitted to the relevant ministry for approval of the transfer of a new tranche, and if the targets are not attained, approval will not be granted.

"There have been cases where companies seemed to be operating and paying dividends, but they were gradually withdrawing all their profits, leaving behind an entity with depreciated fixed assets," Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev said in December 2025. He went on to say that the main criterion eyed by the subcommittee that authorises non-resident transactions is confirmation that the company continues to operate in Russia in good faith and does not plan to wind down its business. The subcommittee assesses the situation based not only on formal documents, but also on impressions, Moiseev pointed out.

The subcommittee is considering dividend payment applications as usual, the Finance Ministry's press service told RBC, "as and when they are received from the relevant federal authorities."