Today, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council, the representative of the executive body of the Republic of Dagestan, Ilyas Umakhanov, gave an exclusive interview to Vestnik Kavkaza. During the conversation, devoted to the development of integration in the former Soviet Union, he drew attention to the need for regular propaganda of unifying principles for the countries and peoples of the former USSR.
"I have a absolutely positive attitude to the philosophy that we should maximally promote the unifying principles, which bound our peoples throughout the long history, when our fathers and grandfathers side by side defended the country from the Nazi invaders, restored the ruined cities, plants and factories of the Soviet Union, built the Baikal-Amur Mainline, when the national cultures of all former Soviet republics, the peoples living in the Russian Federation, received a completely different sound and flourishing, when progress in the direction of science, technology and other fields was achieved collectively," he stressed.
According to him, this propaganda is even more necessary today, because in previous years, a certain estrangement between the peoples of the once united country appeared. "I am deeply convinced that we have lost a certain period, when we began to look for some conflict-forming episodes of our history, those pages of it, which do not cause any other feelings except for bitterness and regret. That is how we lost a huge positive groundwork laid by the older generations. Today, the picture is still somewhat different, and I'm very grateful to the media, who are now using the possibilities of unifying principles and promoting our common values, our shared history, our common roots much stronger and actively," Ilyas Umakhanov stated.
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In particular, he praised the initiative of the senator of the Republic of Buryatia, a member of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, Arnold Tulohonov, on installing a bust of national leader Heydar Aliyev in the republic, about which he told Vestnik Kavkaza earlier during the 'Tribune' program.
"This is one of the initiatives, for which I am very grateful to our colleague Tulohonov, and a variety of social organizations, so that one of the symbols of our cultural and humanitarian cooperation, the preservation of our common historical memory, was the immortalization of the role of Heydar Aliyev in the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline. I'll tell you even more than that: I already had consultations with the leadership of the Russian Railways, and we, maybe even this week, on February 11th or 12th, will hold the first working meeting on this topic. The initiative group is ready to finance such a project using charity, personal, contribution, donation extra-budgetary sources. The idea, as I see it, deserves maximum support, and the Federation Council will do everything possible to implement it as quickly as possible," he informed.
According to him, the birthday of Heydar Aliyev, May 10th, could serve as a reference point for opening of the monument. "Ideally, of course, it could be made for the birthday of Heydar Aliyev, immediately after the May holidays (nevertheless, we do not work in the mode when it is necessary to ensure commissioning of any object to each date). There can be many such examples, not only in our relations and common history with Azerbaijan, but also with other neighboring countries. This is seed that should be nurtured very carefully, so that it pays off, and especially for the younger generation, because the older generation have been witnesses and participants of these events," Ilyas Umakhanov concluded
