Russian experts continue to discuss the professional standard for the sphere of national and religious relations, developed at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.
The deputy head of the office for strengthening national unity and prevention of extremism on national and religious grounds of the Federal Agency for Nationality Affairs, Alexander Nenashev, said: "once we spoke about the necessity of legal literacy of the population, then, after the transition to market relations, we started to talk about the necessity of an economic literacy of our population, now it's time to talk about literacy in the sphere of interethnic and interreligious relations".
Alexander Nenashev
The ex-minister of the Russian Federation for Nationality Affairs, a member of the Presidential Council on Interethnic Relations, the head of the Department of National and Federative Relations of IPACS RANEPA, Vyacheslav Mikhailov, recalls that when the decision to hold the Sochi Olympics was made, the "Circassian issue" was raised: "A part of the indigenous population of this region feared that the construction and reconstruction of [Olympic facilities] could lead to environmental consequences. "The leadership of the country drew attention to this issue. They carried out the so-called ethnological expertise. A great deal of work was done among the Circassian population, explanations were given. When oil and gas developments were under way in the northern regions of the Tyumen Region, I saw thousands of deer corpses from the helicopter ... That is, the national question grows not so much from a political issue as from an economic issue, distribution of productive forces, and so on".
Vyacheslav Mikhailov
According to Mikhailov, when the decision to expand Moscow was made, ethnological expertise was not carried out: "Today, Moscow and St. Petersburg are sucking the population from the central regions of Russia. A huge array is in a state of demographic fatigue... We must prepare a huge number of ethnologically literate specialists, and we should have a relevant standard. The ethnological expertise should be carried out before taking any decisions at the highest level, at the regional level and at the municipal level. It is necessary to carry out a whole revolution in the formation of ethnological knowledge and understanding of these issues".
