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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues,

First, let me go back to yesterday’s events – the National Unity Day celebrations.

As you all know, this holiday celebrates a major inflection point in early 17^th century, when Russia defeated the invaders and put an end to the period we call the Time of Troubles. This was a genuine feat for our nation, with people from various social strata and ethnic groups coming together for the sake of their shared Fatherland.

At the same time, what happened in the distant past still serves as a lesson for all of us. Indeed, it will always remain relevant by serving as a rallying cry for all the subsequent generations to prevent disputes from giving rise to discord that can destroy a nation, as well as to prevent anything that undermines statehood and its very foundations. It is also a call to preserve and cherish social and national unity, as well as our values and the tenets we share. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this is the most important and fundamental pillar of our sovereignty.

Today, our heroes, soldiers and officers, exemplify a genuine sense of interethnic unity and brotherhood-in-arms as part of the special military operation. They have been waging their righteous battle together for Russia demonstrating on the battlefield that we stand as a united nation.

Colleagues,

Our meeting’s agenda focuses on the State Interethnic Policy Strategy. We will sum up performance under this strategy since 2012 and will also discuss the drafting of an updated strategy for the next ten years.

Let me note that several major organisational and administrative decisions have been taken in keeping with this strategy. In fact, we have built a cohesive and up-to-date policy framework for interethnic affairs to meet the challenges we face and the objectives we pursue today.

I would like to thank all of you for your work, including the Presidential Council, our colleagues from government agencies and NGOs, spiritual leaders representing our traditional religious denominations, as well as the academic community.

We need to continue fine-tuning the legal framework, institutions and mechanisms that have proven to be effective. This includes efforts to develop a system for monitoring and early prevention of any risks that have the potential of evolving into conflict situations in interethnic and interfaith relations.

On the whole, social studies have registered stable and positive trends in these spheres, but only on the whole. It is essential to promptly respond to every local incident, which sometimes happens because life is complex and diverse. We must prevent provocations and attempts to sow strife among people, considering that those who try to incite them usually live outside the country and are being supervised, financed and controlled by foreign security services.

Their obvious goal is to undermine our unity. Our enemies are using every opportunity and pretext for this, including household incidents and the migration factor, to stir things up, and incite and provoke conflicts relying on radical groups, which implies openly terrorist methods.

New pseudo-international organisations and pseudo-national centres that are established outside Russia are nothing other than instruments in the information war waged against us. You are aware of this, as they are increasingly talking about the “decolonisation” of Russia, which amounts to dismembering the Russian Federation and inflicting the much talked-about “strategic defeat” on Russia.

They have coined a new term, “post-Russia,” which means a territory stripped of its sovereignty and split into small fragments subordinate to the West. We have often heard about this in different versions. New ones have emerged, but their essence has not changed.

Nevertheless, although they have not succeeded in achieving their goal over the past decades and even centuries, they carry on this policy, and hence threats to us persist. We must certainly take this into account and respond firmly, consistently, systematically and appropriately to these risks and challenges. The new edition of the State Ethnic Policy Strategy must reflect all these elements.

Colleagues, I would like to draw your attention to the following.

First, as I have said, the ideology of aggressive Russophobia is spearheaded against all peoples of our country, because there is no Russia without the Russian people, the Russian ethnos and the Russian factor. That is why Russophobia is in the focus of our opponent’s attention.

The Russian identity, the traditions, culture and language of our state-forming people must be nurtured and protected. Their unifying force is the guarantee of the unity of our multinational Fatherland.

Of course, the culture, customs and language of each people living in our vast country are also important and necessary for us. This diversity and our concern about maintaining it are the bedrock of Russia’s ethnic policy.

I would like to add that there will be two new holidays in the Russian calendar: the Day of Indigenous Peoples and the Day of the Languages of the Peoples of the Russian Federation. They will be marked on April 30 and September 8, respectively.

Second, public opinion should be one of the crucial indicators of national policy effectiveness. It is important to understand what people think about interethnic relations in their region, city or community, as well as their views on the quality of officials’ work in this sensitive area.

Of course, to capture the real-life picture and dynamics, particularly when it comes to strengthening our national identity, we need precision tools.

In this context, I would like to ask you to examine sociological research on the matter, in cooperation with leading scholars and experts, and propose solutions on how we can improve these tools using advanced research.

Third, the system of effectiveness indicators under the new strategy is extremely important for the quality of management and for making balanced, timely decisions.

I agree with our colleagues: the list of these indicators in ethnic policy must be comprehensive and objective, which also means they should be applied to the performance of competent authorities across all levels. I ask the Government, the Council and the regions to work through this matter extensively.

Fourth, the strategy proposes strengthening the regional component. This is the right step for our large federation. At the same time, regional heads must have all the tools available for working locally, while the federal centre must, as usual, map out the general strategic course.

Fifth, coordinating inter-ethnic relations is currently the responsibility of an inter-agency working group. Considering the importance of this area of work, I suggest elevating its status to that of a government commission.

Now, let’s move to the meeting agenda.

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Vladimir Putin: I will continue the topic of media work – something that Igor Barinov and Tatyana Golikova spoke about. They began with fake news, media issues, misinformation, and so on.

This is a very important area of work – countering attempts to influence us and our society. We must realise that it is a weapon. It is a weapon that Russia’s opponents use against us while improving it.

I must report to you that we have obtained copies of documents drafted by Western intelligence agencies and the foreign centres funded by these agencies that directly describe the strategy of undermining Russia from within by dividing our society and provoking interethnic and interfaith conflicts. We must be aware of this, and our public must know, including people of different ethnicities.

Those who take this path essentially… Clearly, life is complicated and diverse, presenting us with many challenges that may arise, and they do arise, including in everyday matters, for any reason at all. Many conflicts are natural. But we have no right, especially today, to inflate any, even seemingly small, disagreements. We should do the opposite.

I want to thank you for making a significant contribution to resolving interethnic and interfaith disagreements and conflicts. There are no small tasks here and no minor conflicts. We must pay attention to everything and respond quickly, in a professional and thoughtful manner, with love and respect for the interests of the people involved in specific situations. If there is goodwill – which you always demonstrate – and respect for people, you can achieve any compromise.

Of course, it is important to take a very serious and responsible approach to addressing the matters you deal with as part of your professional duties year after year – at the level that our country needs.

These issues are always important for a state with a multi-ethnic population – and there are many such states. But for us, it is particularly important. Ms Golikova said that we have 190 or 194 ethnic groups, correct? In fact, that is not the exact figure. I have heard 196 and other numbers. After all, there are many multiethnic countries but not so many countries like Russia. You see, after all, our country is unique. Therefore, we must do everything to strengthen our unity, as our colleague [Valery Tishkov] said, our civil and national identity, which encompasses both state and Russian identity. On this basis, we can strengthen our state, our Russian identity and our Russian nation. This is our goal.

I want to thank you for the work done on implementing the previous strategy, which is about to expire. Please prepare the draft executive order on adopting the new ethnic policy strategy for the period of 2026 to 2036.

Thank you very much. I hope to continue our work together.