Titled 'Days of India', the nine-day festival began with lighting of the traditional lamp in the new hall of Bolshoi Theatre Monday night.

"From Leo Tolstoy to Gandhi the cultural ties between India and Russia [Images] have survived the radical changes in both the countries," Reddy said while highlighting the key role of culture in promoting people-to-people contact and bringing the two nations together.

Reddy said for the first time since 1987, when a year-long Indian festival was held in ex-Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, under an agreement between Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, India has sent its best artistes to Russia for the nine-day festival.

Sokolov, Minister of Culture and Mass Media of the Russian Federation, emphasised the importance of cultural ties between the two countries. He said Moscow eagerly looks forward to the yearlong cultural festivals to be held in India and Russia in 2008 and 2009 under a proposal made by President Vladimir Putin [Images] at the Indo-Russian summit in New Delhi in winter 2004.

Sixty six folk and 30 classic artists are taking part in the Indian cultural festival. Along with the kaleidoscopic folk dance performances by the dancers, Indian maestros of international repute - santoor player Pandit Shivakumar Sharma, renowned flute exponent Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and violinist L Subarmaniam would perform in Moscow, St Petersburg [Images], Kaluga and Tver cities of Russia during the cultural fest.

Within the framework of the festival an exhibition of over 200 Indian puppets from all parts of the country was inaugurated by Reddy in the Oriental Arts Museum of Moscow.