Substitute Savo Milosevic won it in dramatic fashion by scoring in the 89th minute after Petr Nemov's 82nd-minute strike cancelled out Roman Adamov's opener six minutes earlier.

The victory puts them 10 ahead of second-placed CSKA Moscow, who lost 1-0 to city rivals Spartak on Saturday, with three games remaining.

It is the second season running a team from outside Moscow has won the title after years of dominance from the country's capital clubs and comes just five years after Rubin were promoted to the top flight.

In Sunday's other games, Amkar Perm beat Luch-Energiya Vladivostok 1-0 courtesy of Ivan Starkov's 19th-minute strike.

Vladivostok had Dmitri Nikolaevic Smirnov sent off in the 73rd minute to extinguish any hopes of an equaliser.

FC Moscow left it late to beat Terek Grozny 1-0, Iliev Ivanov scoring in the final minute.

Tomsk also won 1-0 against Spartak Nalchik thanks to Valeri Klimov's 73rd-minute effort.