We have been drafting a routine work scheduled for the top person, but we take into account that the New Year will be a special one, different from typical years, said a high-ranking source from the Kremlin administration. Until a new president is sworn into office in May Vladimir Putin will perform the duties of the Russian president. Then he will turn over the presidential duties to a new master of the Kremlin.

A compulsory program on the presidential agenda includes sessions of the State Council (three or four) and its presidium, sessions of the Council for National projects and other councils and commissions set under the president, talks with high ranking foreign guests.

Throughout almost eight years of presidency Putin made it a tradition to hold weekly conferences with the Cabinet on Mondays and with the Security Council on Saturdays, regular meetings with regional governors and ministers in the presence of the press and meetings with the prime minister on Wednesdays with no press attending. This schedule might be changed when a new president comes into office.

Once a month Putin makes business trips to Russian regions. The president’s presence at different international summits is practically never skipped. Judging by the presidential calendar for 2008 Putin will not pay such visits. A person who will replace him in the top post will obviously be on a picturesque lake shore on Hokkaido in Japan on July 7-9 when the G-8 summit will be held that will focus on problems of global warming, prospects for development of the African continent, nuclear disarmament and soaring oil prices.

An invariable item on the presidential agenda is an APEC forum traditionally held in autumn. In 2008 the forum will be held in Lima on November 22-23.

Twice a year Russia-EU summits are held. President Putin could have held this forum in spring, but he had earlier appointed the Russia- EU summit to be held in Khanty-Mansiysk early in June, which means that Putin might be attending the forum in the capacity of a prime minister, rather than president. Vladimir Putin had invited the president of Finland and the prime minister of Hungary to attend a regular festival of Ugro-Finnish people there. It is not ruled out that the two forums might be synchronized.

The Russian leader's agenda of contacts with his counterparts of the post-Soviet space should not be changed. A regular CIS summit has been scheduled in Bishkek for September. May-June 2008 is known as the time when leaders of states of the Eurasian Economic Cooperation (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan) the Organization of the Treaty on Collective Security (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan) are to meet in Moscow. Obviously. The leaders of these states will be welcomed in Moscow by a new president, who is also scheduled to attend a forum of border guard troops of Russia and Kazakhstan scheduled in Kustanai for September, 2008.

The presidents of Russia and the United States are to meet at least twice in 2008 - at the G-8 and APEC summits. US President George Bush, who will vacate the White House in 2009, is to attend both summits. The Russian and US leaders might reach an agreement on more contacts. A recent telephone conversation between the Russian and US presidents, during which the problem of continuing the dynamics of a bilateral dialogue on a top level was discussed, made it possible to suggest that another Putin -Bush summit might be held in spring.

The Russian president and the Chinese chairman might meet four times in 2008. According to the annual practice of visit exchange the Russian president is the first to visit China in 2008.

A mechanism of interstate consultations between Russia and Germany envisages that after the consultations held in Germany in 2007 now it is Russia's turn to play host.

The year 2008 has been declared the Year of Russia in India. The Indian prime minister who had recently visited Moscow invited personally Putin and Viktor Zubkov to visit India.

It is not ruled out that Putin might hold talks on Russia's behalf in Tripoli. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who had visited Libya and turned over Putin’s personal message to President Muammar al-Qadhafi declared then that a meeting of Putin and Qadhafi should be well prepared.

The Russian president has a dozen more invitations with open dates; he was invited to visit Brunei, Mongolia, Canada, Romania, Argentina, Venezuela and other countries.

After leaving the presidential post Vladimir Putin should visit his home city of St. Petersburg in June, when a regular economic summit will be held there to which Vladimir Putin was invited by the organizers regardless of his new post.

MOSCOW, December 27 (Itar-Tass)