Russia's foreign trade increased 31.2% year-on-year to $277.6 billion in the reported period, said the Federal Customs Service.
However, the Central Bank cited slightly different figures, saying that Russia's foreign trade surplus in January-August rose 31.5%, to $100.154 billion year-on-year, and foreign trade totaled $295.848 billion, showing a 28.9% growth.
Exports exceeded imports, though mostly thanks to sales of fuel and energy products by Russia, being the world's major oil and gas supplier.
Exports totaled $196.7 billion, seeing a 29.8% increase year-on-year, the service said. Energy products made 70.8% of total exports to countries outside the post-Soviet territory compared to 66.1% in 2005.
Fuel and energy products took over exports to ex-Soviet republics too, holding a 43.4% share against 42.4% last year.
Russia's imports were $80.9 billion, a 34.6% increase year-on-year, with the largest share of machines and equipment - 50.3% against 46.6% in 2005.
The customs service said the European Union was Russia's largest economic partner, sharing 53.9% of Russian trade against 52.3% in January-August 2005.
The share of ex-Soviet republics in Russian trade dropped from 15.3% in the first eight months of 2005 to 14.6% in the same period of 2006.
