Bebars Natcho scored the only goal of the game in the 20th minute to make it three wins and three draws from their opening six matches. CSKA Moscow and Zenit St Petersburg both moved within a point of Rubin with draws.

Champions League quarter-finalists CSKA drew 1-1 at home to city rivals Lokomotiv. Guilherme put CSKA in front in the seventh minute but the visitors responded through Oleg Kuzmin with a minute to go.

Zenit joined CSKA on 11 points after a goalless draw away to Tomsk.

At the bottom, Sibir Novosibirsk suffered a fifth defeat in their opening six matches as they lost 2-1 away to Alania Vladikavkaz with Aleksander Marenich scoring an 88th-minute winner.