Seydou Doumbia's close-range strike was enough for CSKA Moscow to return to winning ways with a 2-1 win over capital city rivals Spartak on Monday.
The win, CSKA's first in the league since October, sees them move within six points of leaders Zenit St. Petersburg, who thrashed Dynamo Moscow 5-1 on Friday.
CSKA, who lost to Real Madrid in the Champions League knockout stage last week, now enjoy a four-point cushion over third-placed Lokomotiv Moscow, who seized the spot with a 1-0 win over Anzhi on Sunday.
"We played a decent, high-quality match," CSKA coach Leonid Slutsky said. "The score doesn't reflect what happened on the pitch, bearing in mind the number of chances we had."
Spartak had been fourth before the weekend's fixtures, but now find themselves fifth an under threat from Rubin Kazan and Anzhi.
Spartak coach Valery Karpin said the club had practised defending against the kind of quick counter-attacks that led to CSKA's opening goal.
"We let one in all the same," he said. "We played well in the second half before the second goal, but our subsitutions didn't improve our play, that's why the second half turned out the way it did."
CSKA opened the scoring on 37 minutes when Zoran Tosic beat the Spartak offside trap and slid a placed shot past Andriy Dikan that bounced in off the far post.
Spartak evened the scores with Artem Dzyuba's drive from the edge of the box five minutes after the restart.
Doumbia restored CSKA's lead ten minutes later, tapping in Ahmed Musa's cross from close range for his 26th goal in 33 games this season, but missed several chances to extend the lead.
The first chance of the game fell to Spartak's Diniyar Bilyaletdinov on seven minutes as the midfielder chested down Ari's pass and volleyed wide.
CSKA saw less of the ball but were dangerous on the break. Tosic tested Spartak on 17 minutes, as he cut inside but saw his shot blocked by Sergey Parshivlyuk.
After Tosic's opener, CSKA almost extended the lead when Alan Dzagoev played in Doumbia, but the Ivorian's shot trickled into Dikan's arms. Emanuel Emenike tried to respond for Spartak in the 43rd minute, but his volley was saved by Sergei Chepchugov.
Spartak pressed after Dzyuba's leveler, with Ari appealing for a penalty when he was fouled by Pontus Wernbloom, but the referee ruled the offense occurred outside the box.
Spartak's clearest chance for a second came when Emenike burst clear of the CSKA defense and tried to round Chepchugov, only for the goalkeeper to pluck the ball from under his feet.
CSKA took the lead but went on to blow a string of chances to make the win more comfortable.
Substitute Sekou Oliseh fired at Dikan from a narrow angle before Tomas Necid tested the goalkeeper with a header from the resulting corner. Doumbia then went one on one with Dikan, but he was horribly off balanace and saw his flicked shot saved.
Doumbia had two more chances on 80 minutes, striking the ball at Dikan from a corner before blazing the rebound over the bar from two yards out.
In other weekend play, Dan Petrescu's Kuban beat Rubin Kazan 1-0 thanks to a Marcos Pizzelli strike for their first home win since September.
Terek Grozny also won 1-0, over FC Rostov, courtesy of a second-half strike from Shamil Asildarov, continuing a mini-revival that saw the Chechen side pull away from relegation zone.
Elsewhere, a spectacular looping volley from Pavel Yakovlev secured Krylya Sovetov a precious 1-0 win over relegation rivals Spartak Nalchik.
