The separate portal model, developed in the style of the official Kremlin website, should be completed by November. More information about this is available at www.zakupki.gov.ru. On the website, it is expected that one could find phone numbers of the Kremlin “postman”, evaluate its staff (“the page will contain detailed information on officials”), and to see what other countries are writing to the president.

One could send the president an email even today (by going to the official website www.kremlin.ru); but an opportunity to be personally seen is an important novelty. And, if not by the head of state himself, then certainly by some key figures of his administration. Officials are obliged to receive citizens no less than twice a year. This applies to the head of the presidential administration, all deputies, heads of departments, presidential assistants and advisers. The schedule has already been confirmed and will be published on the web portal.

Starting this year Medvedev began to actively restructure the foundations laid under Yeltsin and Putin of the system of communication with constituents. In January, it became possible to leave comments on his video blog (there are already over 25,000 comments). In April, a presidential blog was launched on LiveJournal (it’s followed by almost 10,000 people) and in May, the status of the public reception room of the presidential administration was upgraded to the status of the public reception room of the president himself. In June, Medvedev replaced the head of the constituent services department. And, in addition to everything, he held two personal videoconferences, assigned plenipotentiaries to open receptions in federal district centers, and confirmed a meeting timetable between constituents and senior officials of his administration.

“I believe that it is highly necessary to ensure that our citizens have a direct channel of communication,” Medvedev said recently, while lamenting about the fact that “even in order to make a decision to establish a pedestrian underpass, we often have to turn to Moscow to the president.”

According to experts, Medvedev is trying to change the bureaucratic machine, which traditionally poorly transfers the signals from the “bottom”: departments are writing run-around replies, no one keeps a record of repeat messages, and complaints are “slipping into” that same structure about which people are complaining.

“After the collapse of the Soviet Union, perhaps it was the reply system that suffered most of all,” says Olga Kryshtanovskaya, head of the Center for Elite Studies at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “Committees of public control disappeared, people simply ceased to understand where they could turn to regarding their problems. It seems that Medvedev is trying to establish a valuable system of feedback.”

Bets have been placed on the electronic format. According to the Director of the Institute for Information Freedom Development Elena Golubeva, it’s much cheaper (“it won’t be necessary to travel to Moscow”) and faster (“to make an appointment, one won’t need to knock on numerous doors”). Finally, this is exactly what’s necessary during a crisis, when there is less money and a greater desire to reach those at the top.

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Zhukov pointed out the additional allocation of money for distance learning for children with disabilities, for housing construction for veterans and participants of the Great Patriotic War -- to whom the government is promising square meters by no later than May 9, 2010, when Victory Day will be next celebrated – as well as the allocation of funds for ensuring housing for military men.

Additional funding may also be directed toward initiatives such as state banks’ support of mortgage loans.

“We plan to bring preferential mortgage loans to 5%-7% per annum,” said Zhukov.

He added that the government is counting on regional budgets to help meet the goal.

In Zhukov's opinion, special attention should be given to low income housing that is both comfortable and affordable.

“The maximum price of these apartments must not exceed 30,000 rubles per square meter, and we expect that such homes will soon be rented in the regions,” said the deputy prime minister.

In general, Zhukov favorably evaluated the implementation of national projects in the first half of the year. He pointed out the improvement in the situation in schools, noting that teachers’ salaries significantly increased.

"The average teacher's salary, under the new pay system, comparing to 2008, in the first quarter increased by 1.36 times and equaled to 17,400 rubles,” he said, noting that a year ago teachers earned an average of 12,800 rubles.

In addition, he said, the amount of additional compensation for teachers' classroom management, taking into account all allowances and co-financing by the regions, increased by 6.5% to up to 2,125 rubles. And, he noted, the number of schools with Internet access has been growing, already reaching 52,000 schools.

Another new education initiative is distance learning for disabled children who for health reasons are unable to attend school.

“The program already involves 3,500 kids," Zhukov said. "For each of them, the state has allocated funds for equipping special education places and training for special education teachers. In total, 1 billion rubles has been allocated for this program in the current year."

Health issues were also discussed during Zhukov's meeting with regional representatives. Meeting participants stated that the natural population decline in Russia during the first half of this year declined 30.2% from the same period last year. Infant mortality decreased by 10%, to 1.8 per 1,000 babies. And the birth rate actually increased by 4.7%. Since the beginning of the year, 850,000 Russians were born, which is 38,000 more babies than in the first half of 2008.

"The number of deaths decreased by 40,000, or 3.7%," Zhukov pointed out.

In Russia, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, smoking and alcohol remain the leading health risks.

"An improved mortality rate occurred with virtually all types of diseases," Zhukov said. "Death from neoplasms remains an exception. And this explains the logic of our decision to supplement the top-priority national project to improve the organization of oncologic aid to the population.”

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Privatization in Ukraine has basically been blocked for several years because of the controversy regarding the use of the received funds between the president and the prime minister. Last year, Viktor Yushchenko did not allow the sale of OPP, accusing the government of intending to use the money for pre-electoral populism instead of directing it toward economic development programs.

The situation, however, has now changed. Recently the first deputy head of the Presidential Secretariat, Cabinet of Ministers presidential representative Aleksandr Shlapak, said that September's auction of OPP has been agreed upon by Yushchenko.

Moreover, the president has not objected to the government's new privatization plans. On September 15 controlling stakes in Oblenergo will be put up for sale. The starting price and a list of facilities have not yet been identified. But experts note that even during times of crisis, electricity has constantly remained available, and thus the enterprises will continue to be attractive investments.

The head of SPF, Dmitry Parfenenko, said that the process of privatizing the state-owned Oblenergo is only the beginning. In September SPF's sale will not be held simultaneously: SPF plans to increase its price by selling one or two stakes, and then determine a time when the other stakes will be sold.

The government’s attempts to sell blocking stakes in six Oblenergo failed during the last two years. This year they managed to sell 26.98% of Lviv Oblenergo shares and 25% of Chernihiv Oblenergo. Auction sales of 25% of shares for Trans-Carpathian Oblenergo, Sumy Oblenergo and Poltava Oblenergo were canceled due to the lack of demand. Scandals erupted around the privatization of Odessa Oblenergo blocking stakes.

Experts argue that the difficulties were exclusively related to the behind-the-scenes competition of business groups that were already holding stakes in the companies and were looking to expand their influence. The situation is different with the Oblenergo that will be put on sale in the fall, because the buyer is being offered a controlling stake. The Energy Company of Ukraine currently controls 19 Oblenergo; which ones will go on sale will be soon be known.

Government officials insist that they have been forced into large-scale privatizations by a shortage of credit funds and budgetary problems caused by the economic crisis. The Ukrainian government has made official statements about the stabilizing of the economic situation in the country, but recently released data by the CIS Statistical Committee showed that for the first half of this year, Ukraine had the worst macroeconomic figures in the CIS. It had a record fall in industrial production for Eastern Europe, 31.1%. Ukraine also had the biggest annual inflation rate among the CIS countries for the first half of last year, 17,6%. In Ukraine, however, information about macroeconomic figures is practically secret, something that has never caused a scandal between Yushchenko and Yulia Timoshenko.

“For a government which is trying to attract any sources to fill the budget, privatization can be the answer," the director of the Ukrainian Center for Political and Economic Analysis, Aleksandr Kawa, told the Liga news agency. "However, as we know, for many years privatization has not brought any substantial revenues into the budget.”

Kawa's words are supported by recently released data from the Special Control Panel of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Privatization, which deemed the work of SPF for the last year as unsatisfactory. In 2008, plans to bring nearly $1 billion into the state budget by privatizing the SPF resulted in an actual inflow of around $60 million, according to the deputies. According to them, this year's privatization has not even begun; SPF, they noted, was only selling small facilities.

The situation should change in the fall. Kawa believes that potential buyers of Ukrainian strategic facilities will primarily be from Russia and Libya. Russia has been looking at attractive Ukrainian companies for a long time, but before the economic crisis it regularly encountered unfair competition from Ukrainian business groups. Libya, meanwhile, in the wake of a sudden revitalization of Ukrainian-Libyan relations, has expressed its willingness to take part in large-scale Ukrainian privatization, as Nezavisimaya Gazeta recently reported.

A former head of SPF, Valentina Semenyuk-Samsonenko, has resisted Timoshenko’s attempts to sell the remaining large public facilities, and recently stated that the government's announcement of an auction is illegal and can only have one purpose: filling Yulia Timoshenko’s election funds. Semenyuk-Samsonenko asked potential buyers not to participate in what she called “gambling.”

Government officials argue that this won’t happen again, first and foremost because potential buyers of Ukrainian strategic facilities will be offered wide investment commitments, including full modernization of the enterprises. However, a deputy of the opposition Party of Regions, Vladislav Lukyanov, believes that despite all the conditions, it is not advisable to carry out large-scale privatizations during an economic crisis. He shares the view of Semenyuk-Samsonenko that Timoshenko is aiming to hold on until the election by finding any sources of funding for the government's social programs, in order to enable the prime minister to successfully run for the presidency.

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