By Vestnik Kavkaza
A federal system of monitoring inter-ethnic and inter-religious relations and early prevention of inter-ethnic conflicts is being formed in Russia. The specificity of the system is diversification of information sources. It enables special structures to react quickly to conflict and pre-conflict situations in Russian regions.
17 regions express their will to implement test projects on building a regional system of monitoring: Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachai-Cherkessia, Stavropol Territory, Tatarstan, Kamchatka Territory, Perm Territory, the Vladimir Region, the Vologda Region, the Voronezh Region, the Irkutsk Region, the Leningrad Region, the Moscow Region, the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Yugra and Crimea.
Pavel Starikov, Executive Director of the Federal State Autonomous Scientific Institute “CITiS” which is developing the system, says that its implementation will be held in three stages in 2014-2016.
Svetlana Smirnova, the president of the Assembly of Russian Peoples, described other measures taken by the state within the Strategy of the State Ethnic Policy: “Last year we got a presidential grant to create a pan-Russian civic identity. We held seminars across the country, inviting representatives of state and self-government bodies, civil society institutions, we were looking for ways of forming civic identity.”
According to Smirnova, “a pan-Russian civic identity does not diminish ethnic identity or regional identity. But a pan-Russian civic identity should be in the first plan. What can be done for this? First of all, it is the questions of upbringing , starting from the family. What example do we give to children in families? What do we say about people of other nationalities in families? It all matters. For 20 years we lived in a liberal situation when we said that school and university should not have functions of ideological upbringing. We forgot that according to the Constitution we can't have a pan-Russian state ideology. But there are human values, Russian values, respect for the elderly, love for each other, support, solidarity, creativity, it all remains. The communist code of ethics is similar to the 10 biblical commands. The questions of upbringing should be included in a more organized form in kindergartens, schools and universities.”
