From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
90 days out for Kirill Mogel after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Barnaul will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Ivan Zhitnikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Dinamo Barnaul asked and Alania said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Nikita Chaly
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 7.44. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Market31 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ilja Bychkov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market24 Aug 2026
Ruslan Leonov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Barnaul can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Strogino for Alexey Grishakov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Match22 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Dinamo Barnaul have 3 straight wins of it.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tyumen have kept their man, and Dinamo Barnaul go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Dinamo Barnaul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Zhitnikov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Artem Malfanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Anton Shadura has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match22 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Artem Yarkin’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Dinamo Barnaul.
In brief
-
Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Artem Yarkin at his very best
-
Player ratings
Nikita Vorona stands above it all
-
The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Cherepovets had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ivan Zhitnikov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Dinamo Barnaul asked and Volgar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Market17 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Strogino have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alexey Grishakov. The answer from Dinamo Barnaul has not changed — yet.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Dmitry Tsvetkov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Dinamo Barnaul.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.13, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitry Bakay was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Aug 2026
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Dinamo Barnaul, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market10 Aug 2026
Salyut come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Dinamo Barnaul did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ivan Zhitnikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Kirov have kept their man, and Dinamo Barnaul go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Arseny Zimnin is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Evgeniy Burov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Kaluga have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The plan did not have a place for Danil Babyrin
Nobody at Dinamo Barnaul is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Questions about Vasily Ilik on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Aug 2026
0‑5 against Amkar, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market3 Aug 2026
Vasily Ilik hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Barnaul can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
The stands have turned
“Enough is enough. We have watched this for months.” 6 of the 28 senior players walked off to it, and the message was not aimed at any one of them.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ivan Zhitnikov and Dinamo Barnaul agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mikhail Osipov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Dinamo Barnaul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Zhitnikov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Dmitry Bakay
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom3 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Dinamo Barnaul dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.