Fourteen, 15 and, for now, 16: the Russian top flight looks as though it will kick off this weekend with the full complement of teams, but it's as well to keep checking as the financial winter bites. The battle at the top is likely to be between the usual suspects of Rubin Kazan, CSKA Moscow, Spartak Moscow and Zenit St Petersburg, but the real battle may be simply one of survival.

The Russian football boom was largely financed by the boom in Russian natural resources, and that is in retreat. GDP fell in 2009 after years of stellar growth, and the impact is already being felt in football, with FK Moskva folding last month after NorNikel withdrew their sponsorship. That completed the shameful collapse of Torpedo Moscow of which FK Moskva was once a splinter. Even as the conspiracy theorists suggested it was all part of a plot to get Alania Vladikavkaz back into the top flight (and so appease one of Russia's more troubled regions, runs the logic, even though the Caucasus already had three representatives in the top flight), it also served as a warning to others.

The general perception may be that English football is unsustainable, but compared to Russia it seems comfortingly robust. The Russian top flight as a whole generates only $24m (£16m) a year in television rights, while with attendances averaging only around 12,000, income from gate receipts – and thus merchandising and advertising – is tiny.

Almost every club is dependent on a patron, usually a commodities company backed by an oligarch (FK Moskva's future was first cast in doubt in February 2007 when Mikhail Prokhorov, a keen football fan and now Russia's richest man, left NorNikel, intent on separating his assets from those of his long-time partner Vladimir Potanin), the local government or some combination of the two.

The regional government of Tatarstan continues to back Rubin, Zenit are sponsored by Gazprom, Spartak by Lukoil, and CSKA have just struck a deal with the mid-sized oil company Bashneft for an undisclosed fee, but Shafir Galeyev of Deloitte said he believes that every Russian club posted an operational loss last season, although there is no possibility of performing a full audit.

After FK Moskva, there was a serious possibility that Krylya Sovetov might have gone out of business before the season began. They reportedly owe $80m to various creditors, including Roman Abramovich, who loaned the club $5.4m several years ago, although it is not thought that he is making urgent demands to recover the money.

As late as a fortnight ago, players had not been paid their bonuses since August, part of $15m believed to be owed to the squad, while the coach Yuri Gazzaev – the cousin of the Dynamo Kyiv coach Valeri – had not been paid at all. The squad are now threatening to boycott their opening game this weekend unless the bonuses are paid.

With creditors pressing, the Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin ordered Igor Sechin, his deputy with responsibility for the oil and gas industries, and Sergei Chemezov, head of Russian Technologies, who sponsor Krylya, to find a way of ensuring the club survived. Putin similarly used what is euphemistically known as his "administrative resource" to save Tom Tomsk last season. Sechin has said that Krylya require a yearly budget of up to $30m. It is not yet clear which companies will be asked to contribute, but last year Tom were saved by a combination of Rosneft, the largest oil company in Russia, Gazprom Neft, which used to be Sibneft, and others.

Last year's champions Rubin Kazan, who begin against Yuri Semin's Lokomotiv on Sunday, have lost arguably their best player of last season, the Argentinian forward Alejandro Domínguez, who returned to Zenit after the completion of his loan spell and was sold to Valencia.

They have a coherent method, though, and will hope that Fatih Tekke, brought in from Zenit, can replicate his sparkle. The Turkish forward is one of six winter signings, including the Spanish defender Jordi Figueras, from Celta Vigo, and the Israel international midfielder Bebars Natcho, who played in both legs of the Europa League last-32 game for Hapoel Tel Aviv against Rubin last month.

Rubin, who were more expansive last season than they had been in securing their first title success a year before, were back to their cagey best on Sunday, beating CSKA 1-0 with a fine defensive display an Alexander Bukharov goal to lift the Super Cup. Repeated changes of management undermined CSKA last season, and it was only when Leonid Slutsky replaced Juande Ramos, who had himself replaced Zico, that they achieved any measure of stability.

That was enough to carry them into the last 16 of the Champions League, and their chances in the league are to an extent conditioned by how much of a distraction that proves. The arrival of the Japanese forward Keisuke Honda is intriguing, but it is hard to believe they will not miss the explosive striking talents of Vagner Love. The attacking midfielder Alan Dzagoev remains one of the most exciting prospects in world football, but there are major problems at the back where, at 30, Sergei Ignashevich is showing signs of age and the constant strain of playing alongside the increasingly hapless Vasili Berezutsky. They get the season under way on Friday at home to Amkar Perm.

Spartak, after a difficult start to last season, improved dramatically as Valeri Karpin trusted in youth, although it remains to be seen whether they are sufficiently battle-hardened to mount a real challenge. Alex is a creator of genuine quality, while Welliton was the league's top scorer last season. and they will be complemented in the forward line by a third Brazilian, Ari, signed from AZ Alkmaar.

The Montenegrin centre-back Nikola Drincic, hailed as the new Nemanja Vidic, has also arrived from Amkar, but a broken leg sustained in pre-season is likely to keep him out until August.

Zenit, meanwhile, must be hoping that their long and uneasy transition after winning the Uefa Cup in 2008 is over. They have continued their policy of foreign coaches with the appointment of Luciano Spalletti, who pioneered strikerlessness at Roma, and have made four winter signings, all of them of sufficiently proven quality to suggest the transfer gambling that so enraged Dick Advocaat is over.

Four years after he left for Sevilla, the forward Alexander Kerzhakov has returned from Dinamo, with the international midfielder Igor Semshov moving in the opposite direction, and he is joined by the Serbian forward Danko Lazovic from PSV, the Belarusian goalkeeper Yuri Zhevnov from FK Moskva and the 22-year-old Denmark full-back Michael Lumb from AGF.

Whatever happens in the title race, though, the greatest success for Russian football might be reaching November with 16 top-flight clubs.