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 ruble hit an 18-month low against the yuan, Gazprom beat second-quarter forecasts on higher oil and gas prices, and Rusal asked the government for permission to idle loss-making alumina and bauxite assets.
The yuan gained 8.65 kopecks to 12.9 rubles on the Moscow Exchange on Friday and touched 12.9465 rubles late in the session, a level last seen on 11 February 2025. The Central Bank set its official dollar rate for 29 August 35.34 kopecks lower at 85.6007 rubles and the euro rate 61.78 kopecks lower at 99.682 rubles. Exporters' hard-currency supply remains constrained by sanctions while importers are buying more foreign exchange as monetary conditions ease, said Dmitry Babin of BCS World of Investments, who expects the yuan pair to test 13 rubles early next week; Gazprombank senior analyst Alexander Kamyshansky told Interfax the ruble has potential for moderate strengthening. For exporters invoicing in rubles, the drift raises the local-currency value of receipts but signals continued pressure on import costs.
Source: Interfax, 28 Aug 2026
Gazprom's net profit attributable to shareholders was 863.86 billion rubles (about $10.1 billion) in the first half of 2026, down 12% year on year, but second-quarter profit rose 61% to 518.63 billion rubles (about $6.1 billion) against an Interfax consensus of 443 billion. Half-year revenue rose 6% to 5.3 trillion rubles (about $62 billion) as oil-segment income gained 8% and gas 3%, while EBITDA rose 28% to 1.98 trillion rubles; capital expenditure fell 30% to 833 billion rubles and adjusted free cash flow rose 2.2 times to 634 billion rubles. Adjusted net debt held at the end-2025 level of 6.055 trillion rubles and the net debt to EBITDA ratio fell to 1.81x from 2.07x. Analysts at Tsifra Broker said the lower capex and stronger cash generation improve the outlook for a further recovery, but flagged that costs for the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline remain unquantified; Gazprom shares closed at 84.76 rubles, down about 32% year to date.
Source: Forbes.ru, 28 Aug 2026
Rusal told the government it plans to temporarily mothball part of its Russian raw-material capacity, according to sources cited by Kommersant referring to a letter addressed to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. The assets are the Pikalevo alumina refinery, the North Urals bauxite mine and the Bogoslovsk and Ural plants; Rusal puts the loss on processing their output at roughly $400 per tonne of aluminium, equivalent to about $800 million a year for the group, and estimates the investment needed to restore the raw-material division at $1.8 billion. Any shutdown would deepen Rusal's reliance on imported alumina and remove domestic supply from a market European buyers already source largely outside Russia.
Source: Forbes.ru, 28 Aug 2026
Pipeline monopoly Transneft has become a shareholder in Gazprombank, two financial-market sources told RBC, with a third confirming the stake at 7.52%. Transneft disclosed in July that it had bought 7.52% of voting securities for 40 billion rubles (about $467 million) from an entity ultimately controlled by the state, without naming the issuer; the Central Bank registered an additional Gazprombank share issue of 50.6 million shares at a nominal 450 rubles in the same month. Transneft declined to comment. The two sides overlap on large infrastructure projects, investment financing and settlement services for energy companies, which points to further consolidation of state-linked capital inside the sanctioned banking sector.
Source: Forbes.ru, 28 Aug 2026
Russia's wheat export duty falls to 787.5 rubles per tonne (about $9.20) from 2 September, down 22.2% from the 1,021.1 rubles in force until 1 September, the Agriculture Ministry said. The corn duty drops to 406.5 rubles from 607.3 rubles and the barley duty stays at zero; the rates apply through 8 September and are based on indicative prices of $228.6 per tonne for wheat, $220.6 for corn and $189.3 for barley. Under the grain damper mechanism in place since June 2021, the duty is 70% of the gap between the base price, currently 18,000 rubles per tonne for wheat, and the indicative price, so the cut reflects softer export quotations rather than a policy shift.
Source: Interfax, 28 Aug 2026