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.
The fuel crisis dominated Friday's agenda: Moscow extended its gasoline export ban to the end of January 2027, refinery outages pushed the RSPP business climate index to a one-year low, corporate bond defaults rose 40% year on year, mortgage lending jumped 48% in the first half, and the Bank of Russia was the only major central bank selling gold last quarter.
The cabinet has issued a new temporary export ban covering gasoline, diesel, marine fuel and gas oils, running from 1 August to 31 January 2027. From 1 September the restriction no longer applies to diesel, marine fuel and gas oils shipped by producers themselves; the gasoline ban stays in force for all exporters. Rosstat put the national average gasoline price at 77.7 rubles a litre (about $0.97) in the week to 27 July, with AI-95 near 80 rubles and prices above 100 rubles a litre in Kalmykia, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Chechnya, Tyva and Kamchatka, and above 200 rubles in Crimea and Sevastopol. Two further decrees set up a temporary supply framework for agricultural producers until 1 November and suspend the special pricing rules for state motor fuel procurement until the end of 2026.
Source: Forbes.ru, 30 Jul 2026
The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs put its composite business environment index at 42.4 points in July, down 1.4 points on June and the lowest in a year; readings below 50 signal deterioration. Logistics was the weakest component at 44 points, down 3.8, which the RSPP attributes to unplanned capacity losses at several major refineries and the resulting fuel shortage. Counterparty non-payment was the most cited constraint at 40% of respondents, ahead of falling demand at 33%, while output cuts were reported by 14% of firms against 9% in the first quarter and 13% had trimmed or postponed investment programmes. For suppliers to Russian industry, the survey also shows import restrictions on equipment biting: a tenth of respondents said they cannot re-equip production, and 10% named rising prices for domestic machinery as a binding constraint.
Source: Kommersant, 31 Jul 2026
Twenty-one issuers recorded a first-time default or technical default on bonds and digital financial assets in the first half of 2026, against 15 a year earlier, according to a review by rating agency Expert RA. The agency links most cases to uneven revenue collection caused by counterparty arrears, and cites Rosstat data showing overdue corporate payables of 7 trillion rubles (about $88 billion) as of April, up almost 18% year on year, alongside a 26.5% year-on-year fall in first-quarter corporate profit and a rise in the share of loss-making enterprises to 36.9% from 31.6%. Bond redemptions due before the end of 2026 total 2.4 trillion rubles (about $30 billion), double the year-earlier volume, with the key rate at 14% limiting refinancing options for lower-rated borrowers.
Source: Forbes.ru, 31 Jul 2026
Russian banks issued 2.2 trillion rubles (about $28 billion) in mortgage loans in January to June, 47.9% more than the 1.5 trillion rubles of a year earlier, Bank of Russia data show. Loan numbers rose 44.4% to 490,700. June was the strongest month of the half at 482.7 billion rubles, with state-supported programmes accounting for around 66% of volume after 56.8% in May, as borrowers moved ahead of expected changes to the Family Mortgage scheme. The weighted average mortgage rate fell to 8.95% in June from 10.18% in May because of the shift in mix; the market rate barely moved at 17.8%. Total mortgage debt on bank balance sheets reached 22.4 trillion rubles on 1 July, up 9.7% year on year.
Source: Interfax, 30 Jul 2026
The Bank of Russia cut its gold holdings by 22 tonnes in the second quarter, making it the largest official sector seller worldwide, according to the World Gold Council. Turkey sold 4 tonnes and the Bundesbank about 1 tonne, the latter linked to coin minting. Central bank gold demand overall reached 289 tonnes in the quarter, five times the revised 57 tonnes of the first quarter, led by Poland at 51 tonnes and China at 33 tonnes, with Uzbekistan adding 16 tonnes and Kazakhstan 15 tonnes; first-half demand of 345 tonnes was still the lowest since 2022. Spot gold fell about 24% over the quarter to $4,008.48 an ounce at the end of June.
Source: Forbes.ru, 30 Jul 2026