Russo-American summit agenda

The agenda of the coming Putin-Bush summit stipulates a series of meetings and negotiations in various formats in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The Russian presidential press secretary, Alexei Gromov, told RIA Novosti on Tuesday that George Bush would arrive in Moscow by the evening of May 23rd. After a ceremony of laying a wreath to the Tomb of Unknown Soldier next morning, the US President will head for the Kremlin to hold negotiations with Vladimir Putin. First, the two heads of state will meet tete-a-tete, then the negotiations will proceed in an extended format with the delegations of the two countries attending. Upon completing the official negotiations, the Presidents of Russia and the USA will sign a treaty on strategic offensive arms cuts and a declaration on new strategic relations between the two countries. The signing ceremony will be held in St. Andrew's Hall of the Kremlin with the press present. The leaders of the two countries will give a news conference in the same hall. More than 350 newsmen are to be accredited to participate in it. The Kremlin part of the Russo-American summit will be crowned with an official breakfast in honour of George Bush and his wife Laura on behalf of Vladimir Putin and his wife. If the weather allows, both couples will make a brief stroll along the Kremlin's Sobornaya Square. In the evening, the Bushes will be received by the Putins at the Moscow region residence of the Russian leader in Novo Ogarevo. On May 25th the presidents will be meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia's northern capital. They will make a trip to the Piskarevskoye cemetery, where victims of the city's WWII Hitler blockade were buried, and then visit the Hermitage, one of Russia's largest arts museums. The presidents will leave the Hermitage for St. Petersburg State University to have a meeting with its students. After "the university seminar" the Bushes will continue a sightseeing tour of the city on the Neva. Before leaving St. Petersburg on May 26th the US guests will visit the Russian Museum. The Petersburg part of the US President's visit will be covered by at least 500 journalists from various countries.