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.
Reserves held flat in July while the harder numbers came from trade and transport: parallel imports fell by nearly a quarter, the wheat export duty jumped from a token level, and road freight rates ran 33% above last year.
Russia's international reserves stood at $720.348bn on 1 August, down $99m or 0.01% over the month, according to Central Bank data cited by Interfax. Since 1 January the stock has fallen by $34.505bn, or 4.6%, from $754.853bn. Monetary gold lost $6.137bn in value over July, or 2.1%, to $292.854bn, cutting the gold share of reserves to 40.7% from 41.5%. Gold and yuan assets remain the portion the Central Bank can actually deploy: the 2022 Western sanctions froze access to much of the rest, so headline reserve totals overstate usable buffers.
Source: Interfax, 7 Aug 2026
Parallel imports into Russia totalled $10.6bn in the first half of 2026, 23% less than a year earlier, Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Roman Chekushov told reporters. Monthly volumes now average $1.7bn. Chekushov said the ministry plans no changes to the list of goods eligible for the scheme, which was last amended in May. The mechanism, introduced in May 2022, allows imports without the rightsholder's consent where the owner has quit the Russian market and no domestic equivalent exists. The decline points to either substitution by Chinese and domestic supply or tighter payment and logistics channels, and it narrows the grey route through which Western branded goods still reach Russian buyers.
Source: Interfax, 7 Aug 2026
From 12 August Russia's wheat export duty rises to 326.6 rubles per tonne (about $4) from 5.7 rubles, the Agriculture Ministry said. The barley duty stays at zero and the corn duty falls to 105 rubles from 137.2 rubles; the rates apply through 18 August. They are calculated from indicative prices of $230 per tonne for wheat, against $229.4 in the previous period, $190.9 for barley and $224.5 for corn. Under the grain damper in force since June 2021, the duty equals 70% of the gap between the base price — 18,000 rubles per tonne for wheat — and the indicative price, so the jump reflects a marginal export price move amplified by the formula rather than a policy shift.
Source: Interfax, 7 Aug 2026
Sealegend Shipping plans to launch the first regular container service between China and Europe through the Northern Sea Route this year, Rosatom head Alexey Likhachev told the state corporation's in-house publication. Rosatom, the route's infrastructure operator, has issued transit permits for seven vessels; the Chinese side intends to run eight voyages with a fleet of seven small and mid-sized container ships, with regular sailings possible between August and October if ice conditions allow. Cargo on the route reached 14.5m tonnes in January–May 2026, 13% more than a year earlier, and the 2026–2028 budget allocates roughly 138bn rubles (about €1.45bn) to the Greater Northern Sea Route federal project. For European shippers the route remains a sanctions-exposed alternative to Suez rather than a settled option.
Source: Kommersant, 7 Aug 2026
Russian road haulage rates were 33.2% higher year on year as of 5 August and 5.7% higher over the previous four weeks, according to ATI.SU data cited by Forbes. Refrigerated transport rose 45% and open-deck 44.2% year on year, while closed non-refrigerated haulage gained 31.1%. The drivers are cost, not demand: repair and maintenance expenses are up about 20% year on year per the AvtoGruzEks association, the Platon federal road toll rose to 5.19 rubles per kilometre after February indexation and the March removal of a discount coefficient in place since 2015 — a 55% increase over last year — and the vehicle recycling fee was indexed 10–20%. Real margins remain below 2023 and 2024, though more than 45,000 new carriers registered in the first half, 24% more than a year earlier.
Source: Forbes Russia, 7 Aug 2026