MOSCOW, May 18 (RIA Novosti) - CSKA Moscow scored a late penalty to beat Zenit St. Petersburg 2-1 on Sunday and take over at the top of the Russian Premier League from Rubin, who scrambled to a 2-2 draw against Amkar in the Urals.

A great Yury Zhirkov run and pass set up Nigerian striker Ouwo Moussa Maazou for the former Red Army club's first in the 32nd minute. Russian international Yury Semshov fired home an equalizer in the 52nd minute after the CSKA defense was split by a well-worked Zenit move, but the Moscow club took all three points after Anatoliy Tymoshchuk was judged to have handled in the area with six minutes remaining, Vagner Love making no mistake from the penalty spot.

"We've already proven that we can come back from behind and win," Zhirkov, a reported Chelsea target, told Sport Express. "We tried to open our opponents up without leaving our lines exposed."

Rubin, last week's leaders and CSKA's opponents in the May 31 Russian Cup final, went ahead against Urals side Amkar courtesy of a clinical Roman Adamov strike in the 20th minute. However, goals from Jean Carlos Sales Bemvindo and Martin Kushev saw the Perm team take a 2-1 lead before the interval. Rubin looked to be heading to their second defeat of the season as the match entered the fifth minute of injury time, only for Russian captain Sergei Semak to pop up and earn a point for the Kazan team after a mix-up in the home side's defense.

In other matches, Spartak Moscow came back from behind to draw 1-1 with Tom Tomsk in West Siberia, Lokomotiv Moscow put four without reply past Terek Grozny, and Saturn put recent 4-0 and 5-0 defeats behind them to hold Dynamo Moscow to a 0-0 draw.

In the Volga Region, Krilya Sovetov dominated their match against Kuban, but only found the net once, with Oleg Ivanov's 52nd-minute goal enough to claim all three points, while winless Moscow Region side Khimki held high-flying FC Moskva to a 1-1 draw, picking up their fourth point of the season.

Results May 16-17

Amkar 2-2 Rubin

Lokomotiv Moscow 4-0 Terek Grozny

CSKA Moscow 2-1 Zenit St. Petersburg

Saturn 0-0 Dynamo Moscow

Khimki 1-1 FC Moskva

Tom Tomsk 1-1 Spartak Moscow

Rostov 1-1 Spartak Nalchik

Krilya Sovetov 1-0 Kuban

Table (after 9 games)

CSKA - 19

Rubin - 18

Krilya Sovetov - 16

FC Moskva - 16

Zenit St. Petersburg - 15

Spartak Moscow - 14

Rostov - 14

Dynamo Moscow- 13

Lokomotiv Moscow - 13

Tom Tomsk - 11

Kuban - 9

Terek - 8

Amkar - 8

Spartak Nalchik - 7

Saturn - 6

Khimki - 4