“Are threats to Russian unity real? Where do our politics lead us to?” Permanent residents of the North Caucasus republics, politicians, representatives of various social organizations and media, social activists, scientists, and writers tried to answer these questions at the round table at the Dagestani mission in Moscow. Any person could contribute to settlement of the discussed problem, using modern media tools and gadgets.
"For Russia with its variety of languages and traditions, ethnic groups, and cultures the ethnic issue is fundamental without any doubts. Any responsible politician, social activist should realize that one of the main conditions of our country’s existence is civil and inter-ethnic consent. Historic Russia is not a monoethnic state or the American melting pot where everybody is a migrant. Russia have been forming and developing as a multinational state for centuries," Vaki Magatayev, the first deputy of the permanent resident of Dagestan, says.
"The topic is not simply painful. It is a factor which can literally destroy our unity. It is a weak link which can undermine the Russian statehood. It is the disease which if you don’t treat it, we will find ourselves in Yugoslavia’s situation or even in a worse situation. The fate of our country will depend on what we propose and what is implemented," Alexander Ibragimov, the member of the Commission on Mass Media of the Public Council in Dagestan mission, believes.
"In Soviet times, we used to have a united center. Today we can see politicians who instead of being involved in the right settlement of migration problems… There are no citizens of the UK, the U.S., other countries who are captured in such a shameful way, tortured, robbed, and so on. These are people who used to be citizens of the Soviet Union. We should stop this unacceptable behavior toward each other. Politicians misinform us, stir up hatred in us; we should explain it to them by such round tables that Russia is unified and multinational. Today we see that ahead of the Olympic Games, all regions of Russia are happy that the Olympics will take place in Sochi. When Russian citizens win Olympic medals, we don’t know their ethnicity, but we know that they are Russian citizens and are proud of this," Vakha Yeloyev, the permanent resident of Ingushetia, says.
