Last year VTB Capital knocked Sberbank CIB out of the top spot on the All-Russia Research Team, Institutional Investor's exclusive annual ranking of the nation's best sell-side analysts. This year Sberbank returns the favor.

Complete results can be found at www.institutionalinvestor.com/rankings.

Sberbank captures 12 positions, one fewer than in 2014 but one more than VTB Capital, whose total falls by three.

Deutsche Bank is No. 3 for a seventh straight year. Its total of seven also reflects a loss of three positions.

In fourth place for a third year running is Bank of America Merrill Lynch, with six spots, down from seven in 2014. UBS, in fifth place, is alone among this year's top-five firms in earning the same number of appearances as last year, five.

Survey results reflect the opinions of 340 individuals at 240 buy-side institutions that oversee an estimated $121 billion in Russian equity and fixed-income assets.

A total of 13 firms are included on this year's line-up, including two that appear for the first time: Barclays and BCS Financial Group.

Sberbank's Evgeny Gavrilenkov celebrates his eighth consecutive appearance at No. 1 in Economics, the longest winning streak among currently ranked analysts. VTB Capital's Elena Sakhnova lays claim to the second-longest streak; she captures the top spot in Industrials for a sixth straight year.