President Vladimir Putin has approved Russia's new ethnic-relations strategy.
On December 19, Putin signed a decree endorsing the new Nationalities Policy Strategy and ordered the government to draw up a plan for putting it into practice.
The new Nationalities Policy Strategy will be in effect until 2015 replacing a document in place since 1996.
It sets guidelines for political, economic, and cultural policies affecting dozens of Russia's ethnic groups.
In his first annual address to parliament since beginning his third term as president in May, Putin earlier this month spoke of the need to preserve the Russian national identity.
Media reports say that after initial criticism of the draft, the document drops references to the "state-forming role of the Russian people" and refers instead to their "unifying role."
On December 19, Putin signed a decree endorsing the new Nationalities Policy Strategy and ordered the government to draw up a plan for putting it into practice.
The new Nationalities Policy Strategy will be in effect until 2015 replacing a document in place since 1996.
It sets guidelines for political, economic, and cultural policies affecting dozens of Russia's ethnic groups.
In his first annual address to parliament since beginning his third term as president in May, Putin earlier this month spoke of the need to preserve the Russian national identity.
Media reports say that after initial criticism of the draft, the document drops references to the "state-forming role of the Russian people" and refers instead to their "unifying role."
