Alaniya Vladikavkaz beat Spartak Moscow 5-2 at home on Monday while four second-half goals from CSKA Moscow saw the former Red Army club beat Terek Grozny 4-1 in the Russian capital.
A dramatic first-half ended 2-2 in Vladikavkaz, with Spartak twice coming from behind, but the perennial 1990s champions had no reply to a blistering second-half performance from the newly-promoted North Caucasus club.
Georgiy Gabulov scored his second of the match 21 minutes after the break to give Alaniya a 3-2 lead, his powerful long-range free-kick leaving Spartak's keeper with no chance. Poor defending let Arsen Khubulov in for the home team's fourth in the 88th minute and Sergei Dadu completed Spartak's misery from what looked suspiciously like an offside position in injury time.
Spartak were denied a third goal right at the end of the match when Wellinton saw his spot-kick saved.
In Moscow, CSKA went into the break 1-0 down against Terek Grozny, but two goals from Alan Dzagoyev and strikes from Chidi Odiah and Mark Gonzalez saw Leonid Slutsky's side move into second place, one point behind Zenit St. Petersburg, who face Amkar later on Monday.
At the bottom of the table, west Siberia's Sibir beat Krilya Sovetov 4-1 in front of their home fans.
MOSCOW, May 10 (RIA Novosti)
