Russia will open 11 tolerance centers worth a total of about 1.5 billion rubles in Birobijan, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Saint-Petersburg, Tomsk and Khabarovsk, Izvestia cites Minister for Regional Development Igor Slyunyayev.
The centers will help encourage dialogue, discuss problems and life of Russians in Dagestan, Jews in the Far East, Ukrainians in Tatarstan. The minister believes that they should give more descriptions of religion, culture, traditions and origins of peoples.]
Construction of the centers will be part of the federal purpose program for consolidation of the Russian national and ethnic development of peoples for 2014-2018. The first centers will open in 2015.
Alexander Boroda, head of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, said that the centers will have two-three rooms, a screen to demonstrate tolerant and intolerant behaviour.
They will be based on the model of the Moscow House of Nationalities operating for over a decade. The center hosts national festivals, celebrations of anniversaries and art exhibitions.
