The full picture about the league situation after the three-month pause.

Title Race

Zenit St. Petersburg lead the way by nine points from Lokomotiv Moscow and FC Krasnodar after 22 matchdays of the RPL. There was a similar gap before the winter break, except FC Krasnodar were in sole second place and were 10 points behind the Blue-White-Sky Blues, while the Railwaymen shared third place with FC Rostov and CSKA Moscow.

Zenit resumed the spring season worse than the competition. At home they drew with Lokomotiv and FC Ufa, while FC Krasnodar in turn beat FC Ufa and Spartak Moscow, and after the match in St. Petersburg the Red-Greens won against Akhmat Grozny. However, in the last March matchday, Zenit broke away thanks to a huge victory over FC Ural and FC Krasnodar's shock defeat against FC Sochi. The result at the Fisht Olympic Stadium helped Lokomotiv as well. After beating Rostov away, the Muscovites drew level with FC Krasnodar.

The game in Rostov-on-don was the last for two key Lokomotiv figures. German defender Benedikt Howedes left the club on 8 June for family reasons, and head coach Yuri Semin left after his contract expired on 31 May. The latter's place has been taken by Serbian Marko Nikolic, who previously won the Serbian and Hungarian championships.

Both Zenit and FC Krasnodar have already played Lokomotiv home and away, but are still to face each other a second time. If the table doesn't change before 5 July, their clash at Krasnodar Stadium could be decisive in the title race.

Fight for European places

Next season, Russia will be represented in European competition by six teams: either the RPL top six, or the top five and the Russian Cup winner. The last two of five European spots are currently filled by FC Rostov and CSKA. They both started 2020 with the same number of points as Lokomotiv (34).

After the March run of games, the Railwaymen moved up to second, and FC Rostov were ahead of CSKA on head-to-head record. Valery Karpin's team could have broken into the top three, but lost to Lokomotiv and remained fourth.

In March, CSKA earned just two points out of a possible nine and also crashed out of the Russian Cup after losing to Spartak. The Armymen's advantage over sixth-placed Dynamo has been reduced from nine points to six. This is also down to the White-Blues who came into the break on the back of two straight wins to overtake Arsenal. 

Also in the hunt are Spartak and FC Ufa. In the spring, the Red-Whites won two out of three matches, while FC Ufa took points from Zenit and CSKA on the road.

Dynamo's current position may become important due to the results of the Russian Cup. If the tournament is won by Zenit, who are already in the European places, the RPL's sixth team will qualify for the Europa League, and the fourth team will get the Cup winner's place in the group stage.

Relegation battle

The chasing pack is tight, with just 10 points separating sixth and 16th. In the middle of this group are FC Ural and FC Tambov. They are separated by five points from both a potential place in the Europa League and from direct relegation. This season, there will be no promotion/relegation play-offs, so Orenburg and Rubin Kazan – who are 13th and 14th respectively – occupy the last places that guarantee top-flight safety.

However, Krylia Sovetov Samara are only one point behind FC Orenburg and Rubin. Krylia dropped into the relegation zone in December after four consecutive defeats. After defeating Rubin in March they climbed out, but their loss to FC Tambov in last RPL game before the break dragged them back in. Miodrag Bozovic's team are on thin ice for the second season in a row: in 2019, they only kept their place in the League thanks to a playoff victory over Nizhny Novgorod.

Before the winter break, the table was propped up by FC Sochi, who – with a new head coach in Vladimir Fedotov and loanee striker Aleksandr Kokorin – won three games out of four and shot up to 12th. Their success in March was recognised by the RPL with Fedotov named best coach, and Kokorin, who scored three goals, chosen as best player.

Contrasting fortunes befell Akhmat. After the first part of the season they were outside the relegation playoff spots, and started the spring with a draw against FC Rostov. But then they were eliminated from the Cup, lost to Lokomotiv and Dynamo, and dropped to 16th. Igor Shalimov's team will resume the season with games against direct rivals Krylia Sovetov and FC Sochi, and will also face FC Tambov on 7 July. The rest of their opponents are top-half sides. The priority for Akhmat when the season resumes is to avoid relegation after 12 consecutive seasons in the top flight.

Top goalscorer race

After the first part of the RPL season Zenit's Artem Dzyuba led the way with 11 goals. The forward edged in front in the last December matchday when he scored against Dynamo. Before that, Aleksandr Sobolev and Eldor Shomurodov had shared the lead with him, even scoring their tenth goals of the season on the same matchday. On 5 October, Sobolev reached double figures by scoring a double against Sochi, and the next day Shomurodov scored against CSKA.

Only after the landmark did the strikers start a goalless streak. Sobolev, who played for Krylia Sovetov before the winter break, moved to Spartak and has so far only registered assists in the derbies with Dynamo in the RPL and CSKA in the Cup. Shomurodov ended his drought at the start of the spring when he scored against Akhmat, but in the following matchdays again failed to score.

Dzyuba missed one game in the spring, but in the last match against FC Ural he hit a double to reach 13 goals and increase the gap to his challengers. Now he is two goals from matching the tally of the RPL’s last two top goalscorers – Fedor Chalov and Quincy Promes scored 15 goals in 2018/19 and 2017/18 respectively – and Zenit’s only other RPL top scorer in the last 16 years, Hulk. The 7-1 defeat of FC Ural set a milestone for another Zenit player; Sardar Azmoun scored the first hat-trick in his Russian career. The Iranian now shares third place with Sobolev on 10 goals.