Yes, it's true and my mistake. Current standings for the three spots are Gubanova, Talalaikina and then Nugumanova. The thing is that Russian Cup stages aren't just qualifications to nationals, they're also qualifications to the Cup Final, which is not only good competitive experience but a chance to get back some standing if one WDs from nationals or skates poorly there - it's probably a reason Shcherbakova was on the JGP at all - she beat Trusova there last year. Stripping this experience of skating at Russian Cups away from those who have already qualified to nationals also means that they can't skate at the Cup Final. And there's no guarantee that Trusova and Kostornaya won't be at stage 5 since it's in Moscow and to make the cup final they must skate at two stages. It's bad enough to me that they forced Shcherbakova to skate in juniors here because now she can't make the cup final at all since she skated seniors in event II and juniors in event IV.