WASHINGTON - The upcoming annual Group of Eight economic summit, the first ever on Russian soil, is shaping up as a public relations coup for President Vladimir Putin, highlighting his country's return as a major player on the world stage.

If the three days of meetings turn out as Putin has planned, he will be able to point to the start of negotiations on a long-desired civilian nuclear agreement with the United States and G-8 endorsements of Putin's major summit policy objectives in the areas of energy, infectious diseases and education.

The activity will start Saturday when the leaders of the G-8 countries - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - gather for a glittering dinner in St. Petersburg, the former czarist capital founded 300 years ago by Peter the Great.

In the more than three decades that the world's major countries have staged these meetings, foreign policy crises often have intervened to take time away from the economic issues, and this year is no exception.

A search for ways to deal with North Korea's test firing of missiles and Iran's nuclear program are expected to take up much of the discussion time.

Russian support is seen as critical in defusing both situations, and for that reason President Bush and the other leaders are expected to soften any criticism of Putin's backsliding on democratic reforms.

Russia was added to the group of major industrial countries in 1998 after a number of years in which first Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and then Russian President Boris Yeltsin were invited to meet with the G-7 leaders during a portion of their discussions to bolster the country's transition after seven decades of communist rule.

But some critics including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called for a boycott of this year's meeting given what they saw as a disturbing drift by Putin away from democracy and toward more authoritarian rule, developments that have also raised alarms inside the Bush administration.

In a May speech in Lithuania that angered Putin's government, Vice President Dick Cheney accused Russia of cracking down on religious and political rights and using its vast energy reserves as “tools of intimidation” against its neighbors. That was a reference to a January standoff over natural gas sales in which Russia briefly cut off supplies to Ukraine.

In an interview broadcast today, Putin dismissed Cheney's criticism. “I think the statements of your vice president of this sort are the same as an unsuccessful hunting shot,” Putin told NBC's “Today” show, referring to Cheney's errant shot that wounded a hunting companion in February.

Former President Mikhail Gorbachev, interviewed on ABC's “Good Morning America,” said, “Americans have a severe disease, worse than AIDS. It's called winner's complex. You want American-style democracy in Russia. It will not work.”

“We have made our mistakes. So what! Do you really think you're smarter than we are.”

While Bush plans to meet with civil society groups on Saturday in St. Petersburg, his discussions with Putin on democratic reforms will be done “frankly but privately,” Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser, told reporters this week at a White House briefing.

In addition to toning down its rhetoric during the summit, the Bush administration has said it will announce the start of negotiations on a civilian nuclear agreement with Russia, something that country has desired for many years as a way to get into the lucrative business of storing spent nuclear fuel from civilian power reactors.

There also could be a breakthrough at the summit on another Russian goal - U.S. approval for Russia's bid to become a member of the World Trade Organization. Russia has been trying to join the WTO since 1993 and the U.S. is now the only country yet to reach a deal with Russia on membership terms.

Putin's aides say Russia is determined to stage a summit that will showcase the country's economic rebound following the 1998 collapse of the Russian ruble, a rise that has been supported by soaring oil revenues, reflecting Russia's status as the world's second largest petroleum producer after Saudi Arabia.

“At the end of the summit, we would like that no one questions the membership of Russia within the G-8,” Igor Shuvalov, Putin's personal representative to the summit, told reporters at a pre-summit briefing.

The public opinion polls show that Putin, despite the criticism, remains popular, with approval ratings above 70 percent, the highest for any G-8 leader.