Second-place FC Krasnodar cut the gap to Russian Premier League leader Zenit St. Petersburg with a strong away win Monday.
Krasnodar's 3-0 victory at Arsenal Tula leaves the team from southern Russia six points behind Zenit, which had stumbled in a draw with Spartak Moscow on Saturday. Four rounds of games remain.
Krasnodar is unbeaten in nine league games after the win over Arsenal, which saw Roman Shirokov open the scoring on 38 minutes after seizing on a defensive error.
Shirokov also set up Brazilian forward Ari's 55th-minute goal before Colombian winger Ricardo Laborde made it 3-0 in second-half stoppage time.
Later Monday, reigning champion CSKA Moscow kept up its push for Champions League qualification by winning 3-1 at home to Ural Yekaterinburg.
Bibras Natcho opened the scoring for CSKA in the 17th minute before Georgi Milanov and Alan Dzagoev extended the lead. Ural scored a late consolation goal through Alexander Sapeta.
The win leaves CSKA 10 points off Zenit and four behind Krasnodar, which holds the second of Russia's two Champions League spots.
Behind CSKA is Dynamo Moscow, which recovered form Sunday with a 2-1 win over Kuban Krasnodar after slipping to defeat against relegation-threatened Amkar Perm in midweek.
On Saturday, Zenit rescued a draw against Spartak after Brazilian midfielder Romulo's 48th-minute opener. The St. Petersburg side looked set for defeat before Hulk levelled the score in stoppage time.
In other results, Mordovia Saransk beat fellow relegation candidate FC Ufa 2-1 on Monday. Sunday saw Amkar draw 1-1 at home with Lokomotiv Moscow and a 2-2 draw between Torpedo Moscow and Europe-chasing Rubin Kazan.
On Saturday, Chechen team Terek Grozny beat FC Rostov 1-0.
This content appears as provided to The Globe by the originating wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.