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.
Russian gas kept moving into an EU market that is running short of storage, while Turkish transit curbs at the Dardanelles and a widening Caucasus rail corridor reshaped the routes around it.
EU countries imported 14% more Russian LNG in June than a year earlier, Welt am Sonntag reported citing data from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). Russian revenue from the sales climbed to €60m per day, with France the largest buyer: the port of Montoir-de-Bretagne alone took four times more gas in June than in May. Russian gas accounted for 13.4% of total EU gas imports in the second quarter according to Bruegel, down from nearly 50% before 2022, and the flow now runs against an EU ban on Russian LNG that takes effect on 1 January 2027 with fines of at least €2.5m for individuals and €40m for companies.
Source: Forbes Russia, 8 Aug 2026
Turkey's coast guard authority has told a number of vessels heading for Novorossiysk that it is not currently issuing Dardanelles transit permits, or that processing times are being extended, Bloomberg reported citing sources. No reason was given, and some ships were told the restrictions also apply to vessels bound for Ukraine. The move throttles traffic into the Black Sea while oil shipments are already disrupted by the war in Iran, and follows drone attacks on 3 August on the Turkish-owned vessels Yaşar and Nadezhda after they left Novorossiysk; a further Turkish bulker, MV Güllük, was hit near the port on 7 August. For exporters using Novorossiysk and the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal, charter availability and insurance terms are the immediate exposure.
Source: Forbes Russia, 8 Aug 2026
Gas volumes in European underground storage stood below previous benchmark lows on 6 August, Gazprom said citing Gas Infrastructure Europe data. The company said stocks are thinner than at the same point in the 2018 and 2021 injection seasons, when Europe was refilling storage drained by hard winters, and called the shortfall a risk to reliable supply during the cold season. Gazprom is an interested party in that reading, but the underlying storage data is public, and a weak injection season sets up firmer European hub prices into the winter.
Source: Interfax, 8 Aug 2026
NexTouch, a producer of interactive whiteboards, will buy the assets of bankrupt television manufacturer Kvant, Kommersant reported; analysts value the deal at 1–1.5bn rubles (about €11–16m). The Moscow Arbitration Court declared Kvant bankrupt earlier in August, and the plant had already halted production in spring 2025. Revenue fell to 44.9m rubles in 2025 from 4.9bn rubles (about €52m) a year earlier and the loss widened to 387.4m rubles from 3.3m rubles according to SPARK data, with market participants pointing to competition from Chinese suppliers as the cause.
Source: Forbes Russia, 8 Aug 2026
Russia has started shipping coal to Armenia in transit through Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani agency Report said. Ten wagons carrying 700 tonnes left Baladzhary station on Saturday for Boyuk-Kasik on the Azerbaijani-Georgian border, alongside 15 wagons with 1,049 tonnes of Russian wheat. Coal is the eighth commodity to move on the route, which has already carried more than 37,000 tonnes of wheat, about 9,000 tonnes of fertiliser, 1,136 tonnes of propane, 133 tonnes of aluminium, 414 tonnes of anthracite, 67,000 tonnes of sawn timber and 68 tonnes of buckwheat.
Source: Interfax, 8 Aug 2026