Moscow has joined the list of cities bidding to stage the 2012 Olympics.
Its candidature was officially announced by city mayor Yuri Luzhkov after a meeting of the Russian Olympic Committee today.
Moscow joins a strong field - including London, Paris, New York, Leipzig, Madrid and Havana - as declared candidates, with either Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo expected to stand for Brazil.
The Russian capital staged the games in 1980, but it was weakened by an US-led boycott following the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan a year earlier