MOSCOW (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez used a visit to Russia on Thursday to lambaste U.S. “imperialism” but his hosts kept him at arm’s length to avoid spoiling Vladimir Putin’s weekend trip to the United States.

In a barnstorming speech lasting more than an hour at a reception in Moscow, the left-wing leader quoted the works of Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin and thanked Putin for showing solidarity in Venezuela’s feud with the United States.

But the visit comes at an awkward time because President Putin flies on Sunday to the United States for an informal meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush at his family’s ocean-front retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine.

In a signal the Kremlin wants to keep Chavez’s visit low profile, the pro-Kremlin majority in parliament overturned an earlier decision to invite the Venezuelan leader to address the full chamber on Friday, moving him to a smaller hall instead.

Putin is to meet Chavez during the three-day visit but a Kremlin official said the main focus would be on economic ties and not politics -- Russian energy firms are investing in Venezuela and Chavez is a big buyer of Russian arms.

“It seems the Kremlin has decided not to irritate the White House on the eve of the meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents,” Kommersant newspaper wrote.

Russia has its own disputes with Washington, in particular over U.S. plans for a missile defense shield in eastern Europe, but Putin says he still sees Bush as a partner and friend.

Chavez, a left-wing former soldier who says the United States wants to topple him, has called Bush a “devil” in a speech at the United Nations and sought to make common cause with other countries wary of Washington’s influence.

Speaking through an interpreter at the opening of a Latin American cultural centre in Moscow, Chavez said Russia and Venezuela were on the same side.

“We, like you, are fighting for a fair world based on respect for all peoples. American imperialism is destroying peoples, undermining their traditional cultural values,” he said.

“I want to recall Lenin’s work, ‘What to do’ in which he described imperialism as the last stage of capitalism. The world is returning to this idea.”

Chavez said that at his last meeting with his ally, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, the two men had raised a toast to Putin for a speech in Munich in February when he attacked Washington for trying to impose its will on the rest of the world.