diff --git a/wrapper/piuparts_runner b/wrapper/piuparts_runner
index 38e4de4..5caf2b2 100755
--- a/wrapper/piuparts_runner
+++ b/wrapper/piuparts_runner
@@ -6,6 +6,16 @@ rm -f piuparts.tap
 
 [ -n "$release" ] || { echo "Error: release variable not set." >&2 ; exit 1; }
 
+# MT#5671 iff we get release-2.8-update, release-2.8 or release-2.8-builddeps
+# then we want to use only the '2.8' part for our release variable
+case "$release" in
+  release-*)
+    release="${release##release-}"
+    release="${release%%-update}"
+    release="${release%%-builddeps}"
+    ;;
+esac
+
 # adjust Debian/release depending on ngcp version
 case $release in
   2.*) [ -n "$distribution" ] || distribution="squeeze" ;;