A red carpet welcome awaits Sonia Gandhi, chairperson of India's ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), when she arrives here Monday on her fist major visit abroad since her Congress party came to power.

Indian External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh will accompany Gandhi on the four-day visit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will personally host Gandhi when she visits his home city of St. Petersburg.

Gandhi is not new to this country, though this would be her first visit to Russia after the break up of the erstwhile Soviet Union. She had previously come here with her late husband and then Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

That Gandhi chose Russia to be the first destination of her foreign tours is extremely important, said Sergei Lounev, Russia's leading expert on India.

Gandhi had also been invited by China, the US, and Pakistan much earlier, pointed out Lounev, who belongs to the Institute of International Relations
and World Economy , Moscow's most important think tank.

"The visit has to be viewed in the backdrop of the fact that (India's) Congress party led by (the country's first prime minister) Jawaharlal Nehru had laid the foundation of an abiding friendship with Russia and the party has all through remained in the forefront of the friendship movement with Russia," Lounev added.

Speaking about the Nehru-Gandhi family's  "immense and unparalleled" contribution to strengthening relations with Russia, Lounev recalled how Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi had left no stone unturned to build a mutually beneficial, multifaceted relationship between the two countries.

During the visit, Gandhi would call on Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and parliament Speaker Boris Grizlov, who also heads the ruling United Russia Party.

The Centre for National Glory, Russia's
most prominent and pro-Kremlin public foundation has invited Gandhi. The organization is planning to host a number of cultural events and public functions in her honour, said its chief, Alexander Melnik.

All the best museums of Russia, including Kremlin's most famous rooms, the Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin Art Gallery, the Hermitage, the Czar's summer palace, and theatres like Bolshoi and Marinski would remain open for her.

On board a ship in St. Petersburg, Gandhi would witness the "white nights" phenomenon, a spectacle for which thousands from all over the world gather.