Russia's reputation for heavy-handed central control and being run by criminal syndicates has been borne out by spending around the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum.

A giant bridge opened last month to span the straits separating Vladivostok from distant Russky Island, once home to a sensitive Soviet naval base, after a personal directive from the President, Vladimir Putin, to stage the talks on the island.

The leaders' agenda focuses on trade ties across the 21 member economies but Vladivostok is struggling to shake off a reputation as the wild east of Russia.

More than 450 billion roubles ($13 billion) have flooded into the city from the central authorities since it was designated as APEC host to construct venues and accommodation for the meetings this weekend - an amount estimated to be 60 times larger than the total finances of Vladivostok only three years ago.

The cash influx has resulted in charges of corruption and complaints most of the money has returned to cronies in Moscow, with jobs to cheap, migrant workers.

Until recently, the mayor and local governor were henchmen of a crime lord - the former governor Sergei Darkin was tangled in several scandals until he was finally sacked in February in what appeared an attempt to clean up the reputation of the city before the summit.

The former mayor Vladimir Nikolaev, a convicted criminal nicknamed ''Winnie the Pooh'', amassed a $120 million fortune and was implicated in rape, extortion and attempted murder cases.

The cable stay bridge - billed as the largest of its type in the world - was constructed by a Russian firm with no experience building over the ocean after rival foreign companies were in effect excluded from bidding.

The entire APEC venue will become a university campus after the summit.

Mr Putin is determined to show Russia as a Pacific power during the summit, especially in the competitive oil and gas sectors, the mainstay of the Russian economy.

Yesterday he took to the air in an ultralight aircraft to lead a flock of migrating cranes in one of his common outdoor publicity stunts to soften his image.

The APEC summit is Russia's first major international meeting since his return to the presidency, cemented in March after widely criticised elections.

The 59-year-old Mr Putin has also faced protests over his rule, now potentially extending until the mid-2020s.

The punk rock band Pussy Riot became world famous after being handed a three-year sentence for ''hooliganism'' after they criticised Mr Putin during a performance at a Moscow cathedral.

Vladivostok has struggled as an outpost of Russian empire, with promises it will become a ''socialist San Francisco'' or a ''St Petersburg of the east'' but descended near to lawlessness after the collapse of communism.

Criminal gangs skimmed profit from thousands of cars imported from Japan and the population has fallen by nearly 100,000 people in the past two decades.