Tw-time Russian Premier League champions Rubin have put themselves in contention for a European spot ahead of the three-month winter break.
Rubin 2-0 Dynamo Moscow
The ten-man Kazan side won 2-0 at home to Dynamo Moscow in the Premier League Championship Group.
With the season set to take a break this weekend until March 3, the home fans were delighted to see their side take the lead after just four minutes as Roman Eremenko fired home.
Gokdeniz Karadeniz doubled their lead after 22 minutes.
With 13 minutes of normal time left Salvatore Bocchetti was shown a straight red card for punching Luke Wilkshire. But the hosts held on to their advantage winning 2-0 to leapfrog Lokomotiv, while Dynamo stay third.
Kuban 1-1 Spartak Moscow
Spartak failed to capitalize on Dynamo’s slip and their top-two aims took a dent in Krasnodar.
Lacina Traore put Dan Petrescu’s side ahead after 37 minutes with a deft finish. The nine-time Russian champions then took full control of the game but failed to convert it into something serious till late in the game, when Evgeny Makeev leveling for Valery Karpin’s side.
Spartak stay fourth; Kuban are seventh.
Spartak Nalchik 3-0 Terek
In the Relegation Group, second-bottom Spartak Nalchik moved to win a point of safety after winning 3-0 at home to Terek.
Jovan Golic opened the score for Nalchik, on the stroke of half-time. Ten minutes into the second-half Magomed Mitrishev netted the first of his two goals making the most of a one-on-one opportunity to make it 2-0. And with seven minutes left he made it 3-0 to wrap up an impressive victory.
Nalchik are now just one point behind 14th-placed Volga, while Terek stay third.
Krylia Sovetov 1-0 Volga
The other game of saw Krylia Sovetov hosting Volga.Both sides were in one point from a relegation zone before this match.
Krylya Sovetov’s Belarusian forward Sergey Kornilenko after 11 minutes to make the difference in the game. Both sides had number of chances after that but were unlucky to score.
Krylia Sovetov move up to fourth in the relegation group while Volga stay in one point from Spartak Nalchik.