Chinese President Hu Jintao's attendance at the World War II Victory Day celebrations here would be a significant political step promoting Sino-Russian relations, said a leading Russian expert on Far East studies in a recent interview with Xinhua.

"Hu's trip to Russia and appearance in the Victory Day celebrations for the Great Patriotic War, would be a step of political significance that China's leadership takes to promote Sino-Russian cooperation on historical issues and their strategic partnership," said Sergei Luzyanin, deputy director of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

He said Hu's attendance meant China not only valued the present but also valued history and cherished the hard-won victory of World War II and, most importantly, it attached great importance to the fact that the former Soviet Union and China were allies during the war.

The progress of the Great Patriotic War and China's anti-Japanese war were linked. The former Soviet Union sent troops to the battlefront in northeastern China in August 1945, and the level of the two countries' military cooperation had begun to rise since then, Luzyanin said.

Talking about China's contribution to the world's anti-fascist war, the Russian expert said China's huge efforts and sacrifice should be remembered and highly valued when the world stands together to celebrate the war victory.

The Russian people cherished the monuments built by Chinese for the Soviet soldiers fallen in China during the war because they embodied China's respect for the contribution of the former Soviet Union to world peace, Luzyanin told Xinhua.

The expert believed the attendance of Hu and other world leaders at the V-Day celebrations should also be regarded as a strong effort for world peace and stability.

The war had passed but the coordination and friendship between China and Russia built in that period had been enhanced and turned into fruitful cooperation in the economy, politics and culture, Luzyanin said.

He believed the Sino-Russian strategic partnership of cooperation had become an important power of safeguarding world stability and building a harmonious world.