By Vestnik Kavkaza
From 1 April to 10 September 2013 the Council on International Relations under the Russian president will hold the first All-Russian competition of scientific and journalistic work "We are the multinational people of Russia." The idea was born when Vladimir Putin published an article in a series of electoral articles, and one of them was devoted to inter-ethnic relations.
“On the one hand, we all the time say "Let's be friends!", the word "tolerance" and so on, and sometimes we show some negativity, and very little positive in this direction is done,” Vladimir Filippov, Rector of the Peoples' Friendship University, says. “This contest is to support those people who are set on the positive to work with us in this direction. The goals of the contest are strengthening the unity of the peoples of Russia, the patriotism, honor and dignity of citizens of Russia, developing cultural understanding and dialogue, inter-religious dialogue and tolerance among the nations and peoples of the country, anti-xenophobia, fight against counterfeiting the national history and the common cultural and spiritual heritage of the peoples of Russia.
Given the marked goals of a journalistic nature, the subject of the contest is the development of national, civic traditions of spiritual unity, patriotism and civic responsibility, understanding the prospects and risks of increasing diversity in the modern development of the civil society, identifying ways, means and mechanisms of modernization of the historical existence of Russia and its people, development of conceptual approaches to the implementation of the Strategy set by the President of the Russian Federation of the state national policy in the light ofthe challenges of the 21st century.
The summing up will be very beautiful - at the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, more precisely, at the State Kremlin Palace, on 4 November, the Day of National Unity. The winners will be invited there, and I emphasize that there may be dozens, because the first ten, the winners, receive two first prizes of 300 thousand rubles, three second prizes of 200 thousand rubles each, and five third prizes of 100 thousand rubles - that is, ten people who will receive awards and special certificates and certain characters of this contest.”
“We are all involved in the construction of a strong Russian state,” Ara Abrahamian, president of the "Union of Armenians of Russia", states. “10 years ago I began to hold these competitions. Last year we held a contest with "Russian World" in Armenia on the Russian language, Russian songs, the bridge to friendship. It was attended by 400,000 students. These were actually 95% of schools throughout Armenia. I was surprised. This is the preservation of the Russian language and the friendship of our former Soviet republics.”
