I left Russia on my moto in August. While at the border I asked the customs guy handling my paperwork about this--whether you only get the 12 month temp import cert with certain types of visas, and he said, no, visas and the temp import are totally separate, so you get the twelve months with any type of visa.

Thanks Motoreiter, that's great news! Especially for those of us who plan to change visas, leave our motos in Russia over Winter, etc.

Can I ask which border point you crossed?

I forget what the town was called but it was the border with Latvia on the main highway from Moscow to Riga.

Just to back that up, I crossed the border a couple of days ago at Vladikavkaz with a visa that expired in 8 days and got a year on my temporary import for the bike.