Radio Ekho Moskvy

18:49:50, February 6, 2001

Approximately billion dollars is spent annually for the Chechen war, it's more than two per cent of all the budget of Russia. The leader of the Duma faction "Union of Right Forces" Boris Nemtsov cited these data yesterday during the live broadcast of our radio station. The day before he proposed to the president a plan of political settlement in Chechnya prepared by the right-wingers. For the present the federal powers carry out the reduction of Russian military group in Chechnya. At present there are about 80 thousand servicemen in the republic, and in the near future there will be left 50 thousand, reported today to the information agency INTERFAX the first deputy of the Chief of the General Staff Valery Manilov. Besides that, the decision of the Ministry for Defence was announced today - to increase the ration of Russian soldiers in Chechnya. Today the cost of daily ration for servicemen is 37 roubles. Now it has been decided to add 10 roubles more.

About an hour ago Kenneth Gluck, the American citizen liberated from the Chechen captivity came by airplane from Ingushetia to Moscow. Before leaving Ingushetia Kenneth Gluck talked with the president of this republic Ruslan Aushev and according to well-informed sources, he highly appreciated the role of the Federal Security Service (FSS) in his liberation. When the American talked to the journalists he was ready to say only how he was feeling. The officials from the Chechen Prosecutor's Office managed to talk with Kenneth Gluck and, according to the INTERFAX, the American told many interesting things. In particular, he told them the name of the man who was probably connected with the kidnappers. At the same time, when he was asked whether he heard anything about the field commander Yakub who allegedly had organized the kidnapping, according to the FSS, Gluck answered in the negative. Today the American will spend the night in Moscow and tomorrow he will leave for his homeland.