Russia"s Evgeni Plushenko took the lead...

His closest rival, U.S. skater Evan Lysacek is only 0.55 points behind the Russian. Japan"s Daisuke Takahashi is third, only 0.05 points behind Lysacek.

Another Russian skater, Artem Borodulin, scored his personal best of 72.24 points, and is now in 13th place.

Plushenko told journalists that he was "pleased" with his performance and his short program marks were "just."

"The free skating will certainly be a fight," he said.

Plushenko retired after winning the gold at the 2006 Turin Olympics in Italy with a virtuoso performance to Puccini"s Tosca.

After an almost 3-year period of break, he took the gold of the 2010 European Figure Skating Championship in Estonia"s Tallinn earlier this year.

MOSCOW, February 17 (RIA Novosti)