MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) -- Russia will spend nearly 60 million euros to build a new museum celebrating the 200th anniversary of Russia's 1812 victory over French emperor Napoleon, vice premier Alexander Joukov said yesterday.

"I hope that it will be a collection ... at the level of the best museums in the world," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

Roughly 2.38 billion rubles (59 million euros or US$81 million) is to be spent on the museum by 2012.

Joukov said that the museum would include exhibits of many items from the era that are currently stocked in the warehouses of the History Museum on Moscow's Red Square.

Napoleon invaded Russia in June 1812 and although his forces entered Moscow in September, Tsar Alexander I did not surrender.

In October, Napoleon beat a catastrophic retreat from Russia as the Tsar's troops and the Russian winter ground down his army until it was finally defeated in November crossing the Berezina river in what is now Belarus.