HIGH BRITISH GUESTS TO ATTEND V-DAY CELEBRATIONS IN MURMANSK

MURMANSK, April 28 (RIA Novosti, Yekaterina Kozlova) - Queen Elizabeth's son Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Admiral Sir Alan West, First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, are to arrive in Murmansk on May 8 to attend celebrations dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the Great Victory, reports the Murmansk administration with reference to the British consulate in St.Petersburg. During the three days of their visit, the Duke of York and the First Sea Lord are to have a trip to the Arctic fleet's main base in Severomorsk, to meet with the fleet's commander, to lay wreaths to sailor graves at the military cemetery Vaenga and to embark on the memorial submarine K-21 and one of the Arctic fleet's vessels.

In Murmansk, the high guests will take part in the review of a military parade with the participation of Russian and British war veterans, to lay wreaths later to the monument to the Defenders of the Soviet Arctic Zone

The Duke of York and the First Sea Lord will pay honors to the British sailors buried at the city international cemetery. They will also do the Nerpa ship-yards in Snezhnogorsk where a nuclear-powered submarine of the Victor class is to be utilized, and the Atomflot enterprise on whose premises the construction of a burial for nuclear fuel waste is underway in the framework of a joint Russian-British project.

Both projects are being financed by the British government under the G-8 Global Partnership initiative aimed at cooperating with Russia over matters of nuclear and environmental security.

Murmansk will also welcome over 300 British war veterans who participated in Allied Arctic convoys.

From May 7 to 12, Murmansk will be the site of Britain's guided missile frigate "Southerland".