In a phylogeographic study, Levin et al. (2017) argue that the Ponto-Caspian taxa including R. caspicus, R. heckelii and R. stoumboudae could represent a single widespread species whose range extends to Siberia, to be named Rutilus lacustris, whereas R. kutum is included in R. frisii.
[3]
The genera Leucos and Sarmarutilus have been recently separated from Rutilus and are closely related to it.[2]