Russia coach Fabio Capello has named a 27-man provisional squad for this month's World Cup qualifier against Northern Ireland and a friendly game with Brazil.
Capello dropped strikers Igor Lebedenko and Alexander Ryazantsev from the squad which beat Iceland 2-0 in a friendly last month but kept Anzhi Makhachkala forward Oled Shatov.
The final squad that will travel to London to prepare for the games will be named next week.
Russia will face Northern Ireland in Belfast on March 22 and play with Brazil at Stamford Bridge in London three days later.
Russia leads Group F with 16 points from four games. Portugal and Israel are second with seven points each, while Northern Ireland has three.
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Squad:
Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow), Vladimir Gabulov (Anzhi Makhachkala), Sergei Ryzhikov (Rubin Kazan), Anton Shunin (Dynamo Moscow)
Defenders: Alexander Anyukov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Alexei Berezutsky (CSKA Moscow), Vasily Berezutsky (CSKA Moscow), Sergei Ignashevich (CSKA Moscow), Kirill Nababkin (CSKA Moscow), Vladimir Granat (Dynamo Moscow), Andrei Yeshchenko (Anzhi Makhachkala), Arseny Logashov (Anzhi Makhachkala), Dmitry Kombarov (Spartak Moscow)
Midfielders: Igor Denisov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Viktor Faizulin (Zenit St. Petersburg), Roman Shirokov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Denis Glushakov (Lokomotiv Moscow), Maxim Grigoriyev (Lokomotiv Moscow), Oleg Ivanov (Terek Grozny)
Forwards: Vladimir Bystrov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Alexander Kerzhakov (Zenit St. Petersburg), Alan Dzagoev (CSKA Moscow), Yuri Zhirkov (Anzhi Makhachkala), Fedor Smolov (Anzhi Makhachkala), Oleg Shatov (Anzhi Makhachkala), Alexander Kokorin (Dynamo Moscow), Alexander Samedov (Lokomotiv Moscow)
