Currently the law “On the unity of the Russian nation and the management of ethnic relations” will be renamed, writes “Kommersant”. This decision was made by the working group for preparation of the concept of the bill because of the “unwillingness of society to accept the idea of a single nation.”
The document may be called “About bases of the state national policy”. “That’s better. It turned out that the public is not prepared to accept such a thing as a single nation, uniting all nationalities. Given that the President proposed to shift the strategy gosnatspolitiki on the language of the law, we decided to change its name”, — explained the head of the working group, former Minister for nationalities, academician Valery Tishkov.
The bill, he said, will be spelled out the conceptual framework, the mechanism of delineation of powers between Federal, regional and local authorities, the system of monitoring ethno-religious relations in constituent entities of the Russian Federation, state policy in respect of small and indigenous peoples, the principles of ethnological expertise. The Russian nation, he said, is likely to be a special section.
A new concept, the working group will present next month.
Another former Minister of Affairs of nationalities Vladimir Zorin has informed that the working group is still studying the proposals of experts. One of the working titles of the bill, he said, is “About the basics gosnatspolitiki in the Russian Federation”. Most importantly, in his view, “to fix again at the legislative level, the idea of strategy gosnatspolitiki that went into real life”.
In December 2016, the first Deputy Chairman of the Duma Committee on education and science Gennady Onishchenko stated the destruction of the mental unity of Russia. As an example, he cited the far East, where distinguished students are sent to Moscow, and Seoul (South Korea). “This is the mentality that they don’t live in Russia”, — he said.
November 3, the Duma Committee on nationalities began to develop the concept of the law of the Russian nation, an initiative which was supported by President of Russia Vladimir Putin. The head of state suggested that the basis for law can be a strategy for the development of national relations in Russia.
In October, Putin called the unity of the people a key condition for preserving the statehood and independence of Russia, and also the existence of the country as “United and home to all the peoples who inhabit it”.
According to the census 2010 population, Russia is home to about 200 different nationalities, with almost 80 percent of the citizens are Russians.