MOSCOW -- Russian Evgeni Plushenko, the three-time world champion, and American Johnny Weir both fell in the men's short program, but still occupied the top two positions at the Cup of Russia yesterday.

Olympic silver medalist and 2002 world champion Irina Slutskaya presented an almost flawless program to take the lead in the women's event,

Plushenko, who skated first in the men's program, fell on a quadruple jump, but he immediately added a triple toe loop to his routine to help compensate for the mistake. The fall did not affect the rest of his program to "Moonlight Sonata."

The Olympic silver medalist completed a high triple axel and a number of flawless spins and a solid triple lutz. Plushenko concluded his program with a fast step sequence.

"I actually do not know what happened. I landed the quad and was half a meter away when I fell. But the result is actually not bad for the first start," said Plushenko.

He wanted to skip the entire Grand Prix series, but he changed his mind to skate in Russia as a test for the world championships in Moscow in March.

Weir is not competing for points in Moscow -- he won the Trophee Bompard in Paris last week and the NHK Trophy earlier this season.

Skating right after Plushenko, he completed a triple axel and triple lutz-triple toe loop combination, but fell on his last jump, a triple flip.

The mistake did not spoil the impression of his elegant program to music by Saint-Saens, choreographed by famed coach Tatiana Tarasova.

He earned 71.25 points compared to Plushenko's 74.95.

In the women's event, Italy's Carolina Kostner, the only skater to complete a triple-triple jump combination, came in second behind Slutskaya.

World champion Shizuka Arakawa of Japan was third after a series of technical mistakes in her routine to "Madame Butterfly."

Slutskaya, who won Cup of China a week ago, performed a solid technical program that included a triple lutz-double toe loop combination.

A sequence of her fast and tricky spins brought applause from the fans for their countrywoman, and she earned 61.12 points.

"For many years, I was perfect with all these elements -- rotations, spirals, steps -- but under the old system they were not evaluated properly.

"Now they are appreciated, and I like it very much. Though it's tougher now; if you make mistakes they [elements] are not counted in."

Two weeks ago, she won Cup of China, her first competition this season after a knee injury in September slowed her.

She has been hampered the past two seasons by illness and concerns over her mother's battle with kidney disease. Slutskaya missed almost all last season, although she was ninth in the world championships.

Kostner was happy about performing a fast and well-balanced program to a selection of music by Michail Hoppe for which she received her personal best of 57.50 points this season.

In the ice dance, world champions Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov of Russia took the lead.

They won the Trophee Bompard last week after losing for the first time since March 2003 at the NHK Trophy.

Chinese pair Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao won the short program in their event.

The Cup of Russia is the last event in a six-stage series.

The Grand Prix finals are in Beijing Dec. 16-19.