High-speed trains to connect Moscow, Kazan, Samara, Ulyanovsk 2018.

ST. PETERSBURG, December 13 (Itar-Tass) -- High-speed trains will run
between Moscow, Kazan, Samara and Ulyanovsk for the transportation of
football fans during the World Cup-2018, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin told reporters during a visit with Finnish President Tarja Halonen
to an exposition devoted the Allegro high-speed train project on Sunday.
The Russian premier together with the Finnish president has made a
trip on a new high-speed train Allegro on Sunday. Halonen arrived from
Helsinki and the Russian premier joined her in Vyborg and together they
continued a trip to St. Petersburg.
"We are pondering over an idea to coordinate a program to build
high-speed train lines to the World Cup venues," the premier noted.
He recalled that the high-speed trains are already running between
Moscow and St. Petersburg, Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod. High-speed railway
lines are to be connect Moscow with Kazan, Samara and Ulyanovsk. "This
will be a strong impetus for the development of the high-speed train
traffic in the European part of Russia," Putin stated.
For his part, Russian Railways (RZD) President Vladimir Yakunin stated
that RZD is already drafting required documents to submit them in the
government.
Yakunin dwelt in detail on the development of the railways and the
high-speed train traffic, particularly in the Far East and Siberia.
The RZD president believes necessary amendments should be introduced
in the RZD investment program to provide for the high-speed train traffic
during the World Cup-2018.
The current projects for the high-speed train traffic between the
cities, which will host World Cup matches, should be revised, he said.
"We are planning to present amendments for a medium-term investment
program," Yakunin pointed out.

.Ethnic problems can't be solved without positive public dialogue.

MOSCOW, December 13 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian Congress of the
Caucasus Peoples will do all its best to avert retaliatory actions to the
outrageous riots on the Manezh Square. In the current situation the
society needs badly the positive dialogue, the congress leadership
believes. "The alternative to similar riots is the public dialogue
involving the authorities and representatives of national diasporas,"
chairman of the congress executive committee Aliy Totorkulov told
Itar-Tass.
"In the Congress we are seeking to avert mass disturbances among
people from the Caucasus republics, but it is impossible to control
separate and spontaneous retaliatory actions," he predicts. "Russia lacks
a clear-cut strategy and policy of inter-ethnic relations," he noted.
"The largest world country, where hundreds of nationalities live and
all religious confessions exist, lacks either a ministry for the affairs
of nationalities and religions or an agency that would include
representatives of the country's nationalities, or a complex approach to
the settlement of inter-ethnic problems," he believes.
Totorkulov believes that the mass media should cover such events with
a deeper knowledge of the problem. "It is clear that all Russian enemies
are seeking to deteriorate the inter-ethnic situation in the country. A
constructive and unbiased approach should confront this. But,
unfortunately, the mass media do not always take an adequate approach to
this task," he pointed out.
The Russian Congress of the Caucasus Peoples was established in 2007
as a consolidating union of public organizations and representatives of
the Caucasus peoples. Regional branches of the congress work in more than
a half of Russian regions.

.Russia, NKorea FMs to discuss ways to resume six-nation nuke talks.

MOSCOW, December 13 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov and visiting North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun will discuss
here Monday the ways to resume the six-nation negotiations on the Korean
nuclear problem.
The observers noted that the negotiations will be held in a quite
difficult situation amid high tensions between Pyongyang and Seoul after
the sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan and North Korea's
shelling of the South Korean island Yeonpyeong that killed several
civilians.
Russia is holding consultations with the partners in the six-nation
negotiations over a tense situation on the Korean Peninsula. Last week
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin met with Akitaka Saiki,
director-general of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of the Japanese
Foreign Ministry. South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Vee Son Nak is
expected to visit Moscow in the middle of December.
Russian ambassador at large Grigory Logvinov is currently on a visit
in Washington holding consultations with U.S. partners over the situation
on the Korean Peninsula. "There is a serious situation. Unfortunately, the
regional atmosphere is heated," the diplomat said. "It is very important
to work on easing the tensions. Everyone must abstain from steps, which
may cause further escalation of the situation. It is necessary to think
about conditions for the resumption of the negotiations," he noted.
The diplomat could not say when the negotiations might resume. "Not a
single country has called into question the need for resuming the
negotiations and resolving the problems with political and diplomatic
methods," he said.
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