Vedomosti: the share of small business in total turnover in Russia fell to a record low 11.5% 
In the first half of 2021 the turnover of small business in Russia, according to Rosstat, amounted to 11.5 percent of the total volume of small, medium and large enterprises. This share has become a historical anti-record, the lowest value since 2008, when the statistical service began publishing such estimates, Vedomosti writes.
In absolute terms, the turnover of small businesses increased by 18 percent compared to the same period in 2020 , up to 13.7 trillion rubles. But medium and large businesses increased their revenues even higher. The maximum share of small businesses in the total volume was in the first half of 2017 – 18.2 percent.
As stated in the survey of the Institute for Integrated Strategic Research and Development (ICSI), the reason for this decline is the lack of government support for the sector. In August 2021, its volume was 20 percent lower (16.1 billion rubles) than in the same month in the pre-pandemic year 2019, and the number of recipients was 47 percent less (24.3 thousand).
According to the organization, the government should increase the use of aid instruments in order to meet the goals of developing small and medium-sized businesses. It is about affordable financing and stimulating demand for their products.
Experts note that in many respects such dynamics is associated with a sharp increase in incomes of enterprises in the extractive industries, but this does not negate the problems of the sector. Small business is tied to incomes of the population, and they practically did not change with inflation rising by more than eight percent. At the same time, the cost of industrial goods has risen by 23 percent since the beginning of the year, so the profitability of small enterprises has significantly decreased.
Daniil Nametkin, head of the Center for Investment Analysis and Macroeconomic Research of the TsSR, recalled that in the world small and medium-sized businesses are considered one of the the main drivers of economic development and it is on the state in it that the increase in incomes of the population and the growth rate of the economy depend. According to the expert, there is currently no favorable environment for the development of the sector in Russia.
A month ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for the removal of barriers for small businesses that remained in the country in order to ensure the well-being of families and the well-being of citizens.