What Kommersant, RBC, Vedomosti, Interfax and Forbes Russia report — selected and summarized in English every morning, for readers who don't read Russian. Analysis-grade sourcing, no wire rehash. Data context in the Russia Terminal. Regional wires: Central Asia · Caucasus.
Monday set the tone for the week: Russian equities hit a three-year low, the dollar briefly broke above 80 rubles, antitrust authorities opened cartel cases in the retail fuel market, and two large industrial decisions took shape at the Innoprom forum.
The Moscow Exchange index dropped as much as 3.5% on 6 July to an intraday low of 2,164.81 points, its first reading below 2,200 since 27 February 2023, before paring the loss to 2.3% by late afternoon. VTB (-10.5%), Inter RAO (-9.9%) and Transneft preferred shares (-8.4%) led the decline. Analysts point to tight monetary policy, lower oil prices and a strong ruble squeezing exporters, which carry more than half of the index weight.
Source: Forbes, 6 Jul 2026
The off-exchange dollar rate rose 4% on 6 July to a peak of 80.375 rubles, its first move above 80 since 3 April, before easing back to 77.8 by midday. Behind the shift: the Bank of Russia is cutting its daily foreign-currency sales to 0.58 billion rubles in the second half of the year, an eightfold reduction from the first half, and on 1-6 July was buying 9.34 billion rubles (about 120 million dollars) of currency per day under the budget rule, according to T-Investitsii. Its chief economist puts the effect of that swing alone at roughly 3% on the exchange rate over the half-year.
Source: Forbes, 6 Jul 2026
Rosatom has taken the corporate decision to buy out founder Sergei Shishkarev's 51% stake in logistics group Delo, valued at 77 billion rubles (about 1 billion dollars), CEO Alexei Likhachev said at Innoprom in Yekaterinburg. The buyout runs under the "Russian roulette" shareholder clause after Shishkarev declined in late June to purchase Rosatom's 49% for 74 billion rubles, citing macroeconomic conditions; notaries are to record his refusal within two weeks. The deal would move one of Russia's biggest transport and logistics groups fully under state-corporation control.
Source: Forbes, 6 Jul 2026
The Moscow-region office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service opened a case against five independent filling-station operators and one sole proprietor for simultaneously raising gasoline and diesel prices, citing signs of cartel collusion. The Orenburg office found a similar price agreement among three small-wholesale diesel sellers, and the Saratov office issued a warning to the dominant retailer in the Engels district with a compliance deadline of 31 July. The cases signal tighter enforcement as retail fuel prices climb in several regions.
Source: Interfax, 6 Jul 2026
Replacing the Russian-French SaM146 engines with domestic PD-8s on 50 SSJ-100 aircraft, about a third of the fleet, may cost 115 billion rubles (about 1.5 billion dollars), or 2-3 billion rubles per aircraft, industry sources told Kommersant; the final bill could be higher, as the estimate covers mainly engine costs. A PD-8 pair costs 2.18 billion rubles against roughly 600-700 million rubles per SaM146 engine, and the first replacements are expected around 2029. Half of the program would be funded through the Industry Ministry, the rest through other budget channels or aircraft owners.
Source: Forbes, 6 Jul 2026