Three days after being criticised by Vladimir Putin, Russia ended a run of poor form on Tuesday by beating Romania 1-0.
Magomed Ozdoev grabbed a last-minute winner in the friendly for the 2018 World Cup hosts.
Russia had won just one of their last 10 matches, triggering the Russian president to remark that 'we haven't seen beautiful play from the national team for a long time.'
In the first international game to be played in the formerly war-torn Russian region of Chechnya, Russia struggled for much of the 90 minutes due to poor finishing and good saves from Romanian goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon.