Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Moscow to a red carpet welcome on Sunday.
He is on a three-day official visit, during which he will hold wide-ranging talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin at the sixth Indo-Russian annual summit on Tuesday.
Dr Singh was received at the Vnukovo-2 airport by Alexander Chizhov, deputy foreign minister of Russia, Indian ambassador to the Russian Federation, Kanwal Sibal and senior Russian officials.
Tri-services guard of honour was lined up the tarmac to welcome Dr Singh. After the ceremonial welcome, the prime minister and his team drove straight to Hotel Baltschug Kempinski, situated just opposite the Kremlin across the Moskva River.
Dr Singh will start the official part of his visit on Monday by receiving the degree of 'Professor Honoris Causa' of Russia's oldest Moscow State University.
Russian Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko and Vice Premier and Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov will call on Dr Singh separately on Monday at the hotel.
Later, Dr Singh is to address the Indo-Russian business meet organised jointly by FICCI and CII who have sent a 14-member business delegation to Moscow, besides interacting with the local Indian community.
On Tuesday, he will hold one-to-one and delegation level talks in the Kremlin with President Vladimir Putin within the sixth annual Indo-Russian summit.
The two nations had decided to make the summit an annual event in 2000, when the Russian President first visited India. The summit is an occasion for the two sides to synchronise their watches on vital international issues and review progress in the multi-faceted bilateral relations.
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