Medvedev: Russia will not tolerate threats to inter-ethnic consensus

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited Ufa today. The visit focused
on issues of ethnicity and the formation of a common nation in Russia.
The president met with muftis in a mosque and talked to ethnographers,
as well as visiting a thematic exhibition in the Museum of Archaeology
and Ethnography. The State Council held a meeting devoted entirely to
these problems. RIA Novosti reports.

The fight against xenophobia and maintaining ethnic harmony has been
at the focus of attention of the Russian authorities after
nationalistic demonstrations on Manezhnaya Square in Moscow in
December last year.

Opening the meeting of the State Council Presidium, the Russian
president warned against unnecessary dramatization of the inter-ethnic
conflict situation.

The President called it unacceptable to accept people who were
previously convicted for crimes on a nationalistic basis for public
service.

Medvedev also proposed creating regional groups, combined of
representatives of different faiths, aimed at resolving the existing
inter-ethnic conflicts.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for the stimulation of the
production of media products promoting the ideals of ethnic
harmony. In this regard, he stressed the need to optimize the system
of state grants for the production of media products of this kind.

He also urged the public authorities, such as academics,
entrepreneurs and representatives of the clergy to maintain ethnic
harmony in Russia and openly express their position on this issue.