Express-MD2 was a Russian geostationary communications satellite built for the Russian Satellite Communications Company (RSCC). It was designed to carry multiple transponders (eight C-band and one L-band) to provide telecommunications coverage over Russia and neighboring regions. The spacecraft was based on a modified Yakhta bus and was intended to operate at a longitude of about 145° East with a planned service life of around 10 years. 

The satellite was launched on 6 August 2012 on an ILS Proton-M rocket with a Briz-M upper stage from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, riding alongside Indonesia’s Telkom-3 satellite. However, due to a failure of the Briz-M upper stage during orbit insertion, the Express-MD2 (and Telkom-3) were left in unusable orbits and never entered service. 

Express-MD2 was the second in the Ekspress-MD series, following Ekspress-MD1 launched in 2009. Its loss highlighted reliability issues with the Proton/Briz-M launch system at that time.