2018–19 Russian Premier League

The 2018–19 Russian Premier League is the 27th season of the premier football competition in Russia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the 16th under the current Russian Premier League name. Lokomotiv Moscow come into the season as the defending champions.

Teams
As in the previous season, 16 teams will play in the 2018–19 season. After the 2017–18 season, Anzhi Makhachkala, Tosno and SKA-Khabarovsk were relegated to the 2018–19 Russian National Football League. They were replaced by three clubs from the 2017–18 Russian National Football League, Orenburg, Krylya Sovetov Samara, and Yenisey Krasnoyarsk. Orenburg and Krylya returned after one season of absence while Yenisey make their debut in the Premier League.

Basic
The 16 teams will play a round-robin tournament whereby each team plays each one of the other teams twice, once at home and once away. Thus, a total of 240 matches will be played, with 30 matches played by each team.

Promotion and relegation
The teams that finish 15th and 16th will be relegated to the FNL, while the top 2 in that league will be promoted to the Premier League for the 2019–20 season.

The 13th and 14th Premier League teams will play the 4th and 3rd FNL teams respectively in two playoff games with the winners securing Premier League spots for the 2019–20 season.