Exclusively by saving budget funds, Aman Tuleyev explains the desire to hold the governor’s elections ahead of schedule - one day with elections to local governments, which should be held on April 22. “The savings are large -15.5 million rubles. They immediately made a decision that we give this money to the payment of children's benefits, ”says the governor. Tuleyev’s authority expires only in October.

The program is conducted by Tengiz Gudava. They participate in it - by phone from Baku: Irada Bagirova - Doctor of Historical Sciences; Eldar Namazov is an independent political scientist, director of the Center for National Development of Azerbaijan; Elmira Akhundova - Radio Liberty correspondent in Baku.

The person who threatened to blow up the guest center in Lisbon today surrendered to the police. The terrorist, who called Manuel Subtil, demanded that the RTP television company pay him half a million dollars. According to Subtil, one of the RTP programs dedicated to his business led to the bankruptcy of the company he led. Subtila was accompanied by his wife and two daughters.

Vladimir Abarinov, Washington: Seven former and current employees of the Microsoft Corporation filed a lawsuit against racial discrimination. They achieve compensation from the company in the amount of $ 5 billion. This is already the second similar case against Microsoft Corporation over the past three months.

Hasin Raduev, North Caucasus, Chechen-Ingush border: Today, at the Caucasus block, an anti-war rally took place on the Chechen-Ingush border. More than a thousand people participated in it. He organized his socio-political organizations, parties and the movements of Chechnya. Next to me, one of the participants in the rally is the president of the National Olympic Committee of Chechnya Ruslan Badalov.

The head of the Palestinian autonomy, Yasir Arafat, expressed the hope that the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement can be concluded until January 20, when the term of powers of US President Bill Clinton expires. The possibility of soon achieving a compromise was not excluded by the Foreign Minister of Israel Schlomo Beni. It is expected that at the end of this week the Israeli and Palestinian delegations will arrive in Washington to continue negotiations.

Refugees living in two camps of the Nadteric region of Chechnya have not even received bread since the beginning of December; All the rest of the food stopped acting at the end of November. This was announced today by the representative of the President of Russia for the Protection of Human Rights in Chechnya Vladimir Kalamanov, adding that the same catastrophic situation with food formed in three more tent towns in Chechnya.

The senior representatives of Israel and the Palestinian autonomy will meet on Sunday in Cairo with the director of the US Central Intelligence Directorate George Tenet to discuss ways to stop violence in the Middle East. This was announced today by France Press, the official representative of the Palestinian leadership. Israeli radio confirmed the information. The head of the Palestinian Autonomy Yasir Arafat holds consultations in Cairo with Foreign Ministers of the Arab countries.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will arrive in Moscow on a private visit, which will take place on January 6 and 7. Schroeder and his wife will be celebrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin Orthodox Christmas. They will visit the restored Cathedral of Christ-Switches and will be present at the performance in the Bolshoi Theater. Schroeder lunch with the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy Second is also planned.

The rally was held by socio-political organizations, parties and movements of Chechnya.

Foreign Minister of Yugoslavia Goran Schilanovich holds negotiations with US Secretary of State Madeline Albright today in Washington. Schilanovich said that the main negotiation point is the restoration of relations between Yugoslavia and the USA.

Mikhail Sokolov: Radio Liberty speaks. The weekly program "Elections 2001" is on air. Mikhail Sokolov is at the microphone.

In the city of Nakhodka, Primorsky Territory, due to disconnects of electricity that lasts up to 12 hours a day, a state of emergency has been announced. By decision of the city administration, kindergartens were closed until January 10. During the emergency period, street lighting was turned off - only traffic lights work. The mayor of the find Viktor Gnezdilov also ordered to reduce energy consumption at all city enterprises by 2 times.

Sergey Kozlov, Alma-Ata: The Government of Kazakhstan invited the country to establish a new state award to parliament: "Order of the First President Nursultan Nazarbayev." The new order will be equated to the highest state awards of the country, corresponding to the rank of the Chief Order of Kazakhstan, which is called the "Fatherland".

The Russian Ministry of Finance said today that in the first quarter of the coming year, Moscow would not pay the Parisian club of creditors the next part of the debt inherited from the former USSR. According to the representative of the Ministry of Finance Gennady Yezhov, such a decision "has nothing to do with the announcement of the default." Payments for Russian debts itself will be made on time.