United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) hopes to sign a cruiseship newbuilding deal this year.
According to the Asiasis website, vice president Evgeniy Zagorodniy told reporters: "The contract has been worked out materially."
The owner is not yet known.
It is said to be the second cruiseship to be built in Russia in the post-Soviet era.
The first, for operation in the Caspian and Black Sea, started construction at USC's Lotos yard last June.
