By Ekaterina Janashia | 2026-04-10

Inga has been a psychologist in Moscow long enough to recognize a breaking point. What she is seeing now, she told Kontur, is different.

"People are in a state of decline," she said, while asking to withhold her real name. "Negative experiences, low moods, a lack of prospects, and the inability to plan for them."

She is not describing a patient, however. She is describing the country.

A March 2026 study by the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Institute of Psychology found that 42% of Russians now show symptoms of depression and nearly a third display pronounced psychological distress -- a portrait of a society, researchers say, that has entered the death zone. It is the altitude at which the body can no longer sustain itself, no matter how strong the climber once was.

The data was released as the conflict in Ukraine grinds into its fifth year, driven by a toxic combination of runaway inflation, depleted financial reserves, and the collapse of hope for a near-term resolution.

A nation on the edge

The February RAS monitoring study found that 27% of Russians report difficult-to-control anxiety. The crisis is sharpest in urban centers, where depression rates have climbed to 48% as the middle class grapples with the reality that normal life is not returning.

The most vulnerable groups are young adults aged 25 to 34, private-sector workers, and low-income households. The RAS report highlights a paradox at the extremes of the social ladder.

"The most psychologically distressed respondents were those who placed themselves at the very bottom or, conversely, at the very top of the imaginary ladder of social success," it notes.

The gilded generation

The psychological toll is hitting younger Russians with unique severity.

Unlike older generations forged in the chaos of the post-Soviet collapse, today's young adults came of age during relative prosperity and global integration. Until around 2020, they had open access to international education, unrestricted travel and a free internet.

The sudden pivot to isolation hit them without warning and without the coping tools to absorb it.

"When everything changed, they saw for the first time what a total crisis looks like -- when the 'Iron Curtain' falls, when we cannot freely use the internet, plan trips, or choose the country we want to visit rather than the one that lets us in," Inga said.

The timing compounds the damage. Young people are navigating a severe national crisis at precisely the moment they are trying to build adult lives.

"They are in a period of self-determination, trying to build a life path while facing a severe crisis without any coping mechanisms. This makes the youth an extremely vulnerable category," she added.

The economy's death zone

While the Kremlin has touted the economy's resilience against Western sanctions, independent analysts say the buffers that prevented a total collapse are exhausted. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace describes the Russian economy as a "climber stuck in the death zone above 8,000 meters."

Labor shortages, prohibitive interest rates that have frozen consumer credit, and a singular focus on military production have hollowed out the civilian sector. A joint survey by the RAS and state-run pollster the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) found that 84% of the population is deeply worried about inflation. Dairy prices have soared 41% since 2024. Produce costs have climbed nearly 15%.

Financial anxiety has become a national epidemic. Two-thirds of Russians report persistent dread about their personal finances -- up from 60% just three months ago. Over 90% expressed concern about their financial situation in 2026, with 41% saying they see no prospects for income growth and plan to focus solely on cutting expenses.

The collapse of the quick-end myth

The most significant driver of the mental health crisis may be the loss of hope for a swift resolution. In late 2025, 55% of Russians still believed 2026 would bring a return to normalcy. Those hopes have largely evaporated.

The RAS survey found that 60% of respondents now expect the war to continue through the rest of the year. Support for peace negotiations has reached a record 67.2%, according to a February 2026 Levada Center poll.

For the average Russian family, the math no longer adds up -- financially or psychologically. What once felt like a temporary disruption has become the structure of daily life, with no clear exit in sight.