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The challenges faced by a small-business owner near Moscow highlight how Russia’s war-drained economy is on the doorstep of a major crisis.
March 28, 2026, 5:00 a.m. ET
Denis V. Maksimov says he accepts that small businesses like his three bakeries in a working-class town near Moscow will have to chip in more as Russia struggles to pay for the war in Ukraine.
But a 35-fold increase in his taxes? His bakeries, named Mashenka after his eldest daughter, would not survive, he feared. He and his manager counted “everything, down to the paper clips,” to see if they could make the numbers work.
Then Mr. Maksimov complained directly to President Vladimir V. Putin.
The baker submitted a question to Mr. Putin’s annual call-in show, a rare occasion when the Russian leader appears within reach of his people. It was selected, and days later Mr. Maksimov stood with his two daughters in front of one of his bakeries and appealed live to Mr. Putin. The publicity brought in a wave of customers.
By last month, the boost had faded, and Mr. Maksimov found himself confronting the same threats to his businesses’ survival. The Russian economy has hit a wall, and the Kremlin is resorting to higher taxes to keep up its immense military spending.
“I have friends fighting at the front; their parents are retirees. Who is going to pay their pensions?” Mr. Maksimov said recently over coffee at his biggest bakery, an unpretentious space between a Soviet-era apartment building and a beer store. “It turns out, that’s up to me.”
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