More than 50 world leaders will join President Vladimir Putin in Red Square tomorrow for a huge military parade, featuring second world war tanks, aircraft and veterans, to honour the USSR's victory over Nazi Germany 60 years ago.
But controversy is sure to rage on the sidelines, with some eastern European leaders demanding Russia apologise for 50 years of post-war Soviet domination.
And some Russian war veterans say they may take the occasion to protest against their shrinking pensions and social benefits, under reforms introduced by Mr Putin this year.
'For the Kremlin, it is a difficult anniversary to manage. There are a lot of discordant voices,' says Sergei Kazyonnov, an expert with the Institute of National Security and Strategic Research in Moscow. 'But Putin will be hoping to get political dividends from this. It looks like the world is coming to him.'
The 56 leaders who will attend what Mr Putin has billed as a day to celebrate 'the joy of victory and reconciliation' include heads of the three main defeated powers of the war - Germany, Japan and Italy - as well as many of the USSR's key allies in the conflict.
President Hu Jintao will be on hand, as will US President George W.Bush, French President Jacques Chirac and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.