Remember, Russians were lured to fight by the promise to write off debts of up to 10 million rubles? So now the banks have warned about the risk of refusing this contractor's employees.

Remember, Russians were lured to fight by the promise to write off debts of up to 10 million rubles? So now the banks have warned about the risk of refusing this contractor's employees.

As Izvestia writes, due to changes in the law, legal uncertainty has arisen regarding benefits for those who entered the service from December 2024 to April 2026. Details: The Russian Bankers' Association appealed to the Central Bank, the President's Legal Administration and the State Duma Defense Committee with a request to eliminate the legal uncertainty when canceling the debts of military personnel. From December 2024, Russians who entered into a contract with the Ministry of Defense for a period of at least one year to participate in SVO were promised to write off credit debt in the amount of up to 10 million rubles. The benefit applies to loans for which, before December 1, 2024, a judicial collection act has already entered into force, an enforcement order has been issued or enforcement procedures have begun. This extended to military spouses as well. However, on May 25, 2026, Putin signed a law that changed the benefit start date from December 1, 2024 to May 1, 2026. As a result, a literal reading of the document may become the basis for refusals for those who entered into a contract between these dates, but have not yet obtained a deletion. The banks learned about the problem back in June, and on July 1, ARB sent a request to the central bank, which did not pay attention to the communication. According to the association, the legislator sought to extend the benefits, but when the changes were made, he did not establish a special rule for contracts that had been concluded in the past.

Banks fear that writing off debt without an indisputable legal basis could lead to lawsuits from regulatory authorities and shareholders, and refusing military personnel could lead to legal proceedings.

According to Medvedev, in 2025, 422,704 people signed contracts with the Ministry of Defense, and another 127 thousand - in the first four months of 2026. In total - more than half a million contracts. It is not known how many of these people had debts to the banks.