Vitaly Suchkov: "We want Moscow to be the standard of interethnic relations"

The Moscow children's festival of Russian peoples’ national cultures ‘‘My Home – Moscow’’, dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Moscow, has recently opened. On the sidelines of the event the first deputy head of ethnic policy at the Department of Interregional Relations and Tourism of Moscow, Vitaly Suchkov, spoke in an interview with a Vestnik Kavkaza correspondent about the interethnic situation in the Russian capital.

- How do you assess the interethnic situation in Moscow? What measures should be taken to harmonize inter-ethnic relations in the capital?

-  The situation is good in Moscow. We believe that the efforts by the Moscow government and non-governmental organizations maintain this good atmosphere of peace in the capital and they are being put into practice. The strategy of Moscow's ethnic policy until 2025 was adopted on June 6th. It includes a set of measures that create the possibility for people to live peacefully in the capital. People pay attention to every detail in a capital. Not only in our country, but all over the world, so we would like it to be the standard. All the activities in the capital are organized so that everyone can take part in any particular event. 

For example, there is such a holiday as Novruz. In previous times it was celebrated in different spaces by about 5000 people of various nationalities who constantly organized the holiday. This year we decided to hold it at Pavilion 75 of VDNKh. The event was attended by over 35,000 people of different nationalities and religious views. All the festivals and holidays are usually organized in open areas now. We have recently held the Games of Russian Peoples in Izmailovo, which were attended not only by teams representing national cultural autonomies and local associations. Those who came on vacation could also receive such rewards as representatives of national Moscow organizations. The understanding that we have to do everything together is being implemented in practice.

- How are Caucasian organizations active in this work?

- The Council for Nationalities under the Moscow government was formed, and several Caucasian organizations joined it. For example, Kantemir Hurtaev, a member of the presidium of the Council, organizes a lot of activities with young people and students. For example, the ‘All Ours’ holiday is attended by teams of different nationalities. The first ‘Cossack Village’ festival will be held at Tsaritsyno in October and we will invite Cossacks of the Caucasus to participate in it. We have already agreed with representatives of the Cossacks that they will join our event. In general, activity is very high. We made some changes in the Council for Nationalities – the 10 existing commissions now work in a different way. Each is in contact with departments, which supervise one or another direction. I welcome this initiative, as our mutual effort will improve the situation in Moscow.

- What is the role of the diaspora organizations of the South Caucasus countries in maintaining interethnic peace in the capital?

 - They are also active, we can mention such holidays as ‘Apricot’ and ‘Tbilisoba’. The Azerbaijani National Congress is very active in the context of our events. Nobody organizes separately from other events. ‘My Home – Moscow’ was attended by representatives of many nationalities – people from the Caucasus, Central Asia and Siberia. It is very important now to understand how to combine the efforts of each nationality and hold such events in order to see that our common efforts bring better results. We urge everyone to actively participate in the Moscow events.