Discharge without Restructuring
Russian consumer bankruptcy simultaneously demonstrates two seemingly incompatible trends. On the one hand, the law provides for debt restructuring and permits the approval of a plan even against the debtor's position, if the refusal of the plan is used to evade settlements at the expense of stable high income2.
On the other hand, the typical outcome of a case remains not the performance of the plan, but the sale of property with subsequent discharge from obligations. In 2025, 567,997 property sale procedures and 37,897 debt restructuring procedures were introduced, while 3,129 plans were approved. Out of 400,810 reviewed cases of completed property sales, 395,872 ended with the debtor's discharge; the refusal rate was 1.2%3. Moreover, in the vast majority of cases, restructuring before plan approval actually performed the function of an introductory stage rather than an independent mass rehabilitation route4.
These data do not allow, without additional analysis, to call the Russian model either payment-based or selective. A.G. Smirnykh drew attention to the fact that the clarification on the compulsory plan remained almost unclaimed for a long time and does not determine the mass trajectory of cases5. However, the subsequent development of judicial practice shows that the construct of compulsory restructuring, which had been almost unused for a long time, is gradually acquiring practical significance. In the Review of Judicial Practice in Cases of Citizens' Bankruptcy 2025, the Supreme Court directly permitted the approval of a plan without the debtor's consent if their refusal of an economically feasible plan constitutes an abuse of rights6. A case in point is the situation where an able-bodied debtor had no dependents and no property capable of providing any significant satisfaction of creditors' claims, while stable income allowed a portion of earnings to be directed to creditors over three years. At the same time, the debtor retained an amount three times the subsistence minimum, and the outstanding debt at the end of the plan was subject to write-off. This conclusion is also consistent with para. 11 of the Review, which expressly permits the inclusion of conditions on partial repayment of debt in the plan.
Such a construct has already been developed in the practice of district courts. Thus, in one case, the court terminated the previously introduced property sale procedure, moved to restructuring, and approved, against the debtor's will, a five-year plan proposed by the creditor. With the remaining debt of about 840 thousand rubles, the debtor received a stable salary, and the plan provided for a monthly payment of 12 thousand rubles. The courts considered that the debtor's desire to complete the property sale in the absence of assets actually meant choosing a less costly method of discharge from debt, although part of the claims could have been satisfied from future income. The Arbitration Court of the Far Eastern District supported this approach, emphasizing the priority of restructuring over property sale and the possibility of subsequent amendment or cancellation of the plan if the debtor's financial situation changes7.
In another case, the courts of first and appellate instances approved the five-year plan proposed by the bank with a monthly payment of 22,450 rubles, proceeding primarily from the fact that upon the sale of property, creditors would receive less. The Arbitration Court of the Volga-Vyatka District overturned these acts and pointed out that when assessing the feasibility of a long-term plan, one cannot mechanically leave the debtor only the subsistence minimum: the court must take into account objectively necessary expenses, […]
The full text of the article is published in the journal "Zakon" (Law), No. 10, October 2026, and is available on the portal Zakon.ru.
- Federal Law "On Insolvency (Bankruptcy)" dated 26.10.2002 No. 127-FZ (hereinafter — the Bankruptcy Law). ↑
- Paragraph 30 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 13.10.2015 No. 45 "On Certain Issues Related to the Introduction of Procedures Applied in Cases of Insolvency (Bankruptcy) of Citizens". ↑
- Bankruptcy in Russia. Statistical Bulletin of Fedresurs. Results of 2025. Pp. 11–12, 18. URL: https://fedresurs.ru/news/45f888c8-c368-44d8-b038-436a4fe2f923 (accessed: 06.04.2026). ↑
- See: Smirnykh A.G. Bankruptcy of Citizens in the 21st Century: Roads We Choose // Collection of Articles for the 20th Anniversary of the Current Bankruptcy Law and the 30th Anniversary of the First Modern Russian Bankruptcy Law. Moscow, 2023. Pp. 160–168; Amelin A.V., Smirnykh A.G. Discharge from Obligations in Personal Bankruptcy. Moscow, 2022. Pp. 91–92. ↑
- Smirnykh A.G. Op. cit. ↑
- Paragraphs 11, 13 of the Review of Judicial Practice in Cases of Citizens' Bankruptcy, approved by the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on 18.06.2025 (as amended on 29.04.2026). ↑
- Resolution of the Arbitration Court of the Far Eastern District dated 17.10.2025 No. F03-2958/2025 in case No. A73-11924/2024. ↑