Conversation with Putin TV, radio program to be aired Dec 16.

MOSCOW, December 11 (Itar-Tass) - A special programme "Conversation
with Vladimir Putin. Continued" will be aired on December 16 at 12:00 MSK,
by the TV channels Rossiya 1, Rossiya 24, Radio stations Mayak, Vesti FM
and Radio Russia.
As in the previous years, the prime minister during the direct
communication with Russian citizens will respond to the concerns of
citizens. Not only the guests in the studio and those with whom the prime
minister will communicate during live hook-up with Russian cities will be
able to ask Putin questions. This opportunity will be given to anyone who
calls the government head or sends an SMS-message to the single data
processing centre, as well as visit the programme's website.
Putin's conversation partners in the studio will be people of
different professions - workers of industrial and agricultural
enterprises, students, farmers, doctors, teachers and many others, that
is, all those with whom the prime minister in that way or another
communicated throughout the year.
Questions to the prime minister will start to come to the single data
processing centre from 05:00 MSK on December 12 until the end of the live
broadcast.
The telephone number from any spot in Russia - 8-800-200-40-40. Calls
from fixed-line and mobile telephones are free.
It is possible to send questions on the Internet to the site
www.moskva-putinu.ru in the "ask question" section.
Questions in the form of SMS-messages will be received at the number
0-40-40. SMS messages from anywhere in Russia with any phone service
provider will be free of charge. Questions are accepted only in Russian,
and each question should contain no more than 70 characters.
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.Putin, Halonen to open Petersburg-Helsinki speed railway service.

ST. PETERSBURG, December 12 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Prime Minister
Vladimir Putin and Finnish President Tarja Halonen on Sunday will make the
first trip from Helsinki to St. Petersburg on the Allegro high-speed train.
Halonen will embark on the train to Helsinki and the Russian prime
minister will join her in Vyborg. The travel time from the capital of
Finland to St. Petersburg will take slightly more than 3.5 hours, instead
of 6 hours and 18 minutes earlier. The reduced travel time is achieved
through the use of a more technically advanced train and also quicker
border formalities that the passengers will pass as the train moves.
Allegro trains of the French company Alstom, cruising at speeds of
over 200 kilometres per hour that are embodiment of modern high
technology, will be used for passenger transportation.
The contract for the supply of four electric dual power supply
Pendolino Sm6 was concluded with Alstom in 2007. The trains are designed
based on the New Pendolino trains, which is a logical development of the
Pendolino trains, which have been used on Finland's railways for already
several years. Owing to the twin electric power supply, alarm and radio
communication systems this train can be used in both Finland and Russia.
Pendolino is an Italian family of tilting trains used in Italy, Spain,
Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom,
Switzerland, China and shortly in Romania, Ukraine and Russian Federation.
Based on the design of the Italian self designed ETR 401 and the British
Advanced Passenger Train, it was further developed and manufactured by
Fiat Ferroviaria, which was taken over by Alstom in 2002.
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.Parliamentary elections to be held in Dniester region.

TIRASPOL, December 12 (Itar-Tass) - The parliamentary elections will
be held in Transnistria (Dniester region) on Sunday as 123 candidates are
vying for 43 seats in the local Supreme Council.
The deputies are elected for a term of five years, under the majority
system, so candidates from different parties are struggling for votes each
in his own district. Although about 10 political parties of various kinds
- from Communist to Liberal Democratic have been registered in the region,
the favourite of the campaign, according to observers, is the Obnovleniye
(Renovation) party, which controls a majority of seats in the current
parliament.
"We have completed preparations for the vote to be held at 259 polling
stations," head of the Central Election Commission (CEC) head of the
unrecognised republic Pyotr Denisenko told reporters. According to him,
the elections will be monitored by the local and international observers
from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, France, the Czech Republic,
Lithuania, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Gagauzia. The
elections will be considered valid if in more than 25 percent of the
registered 400 thousand voters take part in them. The CEC intends to make
public the preliminary results of the elections on Monday, December 13.
On the eve of elections, President of Transnistria Igor Smirnov urged
voters to be active and to "vote for the worthiest candidates." He
stressed that the MPs "are to decide what the laws will be like, how
timely, how relevant and effective they are. Our goals remain the same -
the independence and further joint development with Russia, as well as the
development of good-neighbourly and partnership relations with the friends
and neighbours," said Smirnov.
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