But one of the main issues occupying the country's leadership at the moment is what to do about the national anthem.

This long-running debate was re-ignited during the summer, when the top Russian football team, Spartak Moscow, complained at the lack of a suitable hymn to belt out before matches.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Russia ditched the old Soviet anthem - with its references to the glorious deeds of Lenin and Stalin - and replaced it with a Patriotic Song by the 19th-century Russian composer Mikhail Glinka.

Heated debate

Glinka had the virtue of being an ideologically neutral choice, but the lack of any words to his song meant it did not exactly lend itself to a morale-boosting singalong - hence the footballers' frustration.

Many people have come forward with suggestions for new lyrics - including one offering from the Spartak Moscow coach - and over the last few months the anthem has become the subject of a heated national debate.

Recent opinion polls show that many people still hanker after the tune of the old Soviet anthem - a much jauntier affair than the Glinka - but would stop short of reinstating the old words.

Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to favour bringing back the Soviet hymn and replacing its original lyrics with a new text by the same author, the 87-year-old Sergey Mikhalkov.

Not everyone is happy with this proposal: the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexy II, is reported to be against the idea of using music he believes many people still associate with repression and state-imposed atheism.

Discredited

However, experience elsewhere shows that it is nearly always the words of national anthems rather than the tunes which become the subject of controversy.

In June the spotlight fell once more on the German national anthem, when a row was caused by a conservative politician's singing of the long-disused first verse of Deutschland uber alles (Germany above everything).

Since the 1950s, only the more politically neutral third verse - which begins with the words "Unity and justice and freedom for the German fatherland" - has been heard in public.

So when it emerged that a leading Christian Democrat politician, Guenther Oettinger, had sung the deeply discredited first verse at a dinner at his old university, it provoked a nationwide debate.

"Shameful words"