Build a future: Putin called the unity of peoples the main condition for preserving the Russian Federation

Today, external forces are once again trying to split Russian society, and the cohesion of citizens remains the main condition for preserving the sovereignty of our country. Vladimir Putin stated this on November 3 at the Council on Interethnic Relations in the Kremlin. The Head of State urged not to limit himself to one "Year of Unity" and put this work on a long-term track. And the participants of the meeting suggested declaring a whole Decade of Unity of the peoples of Russia - in their opinion, such a decision would cover all key areas of the country's life.

How the Year of Unity of Peoples was held in the Russian Federation

Vladimir Putin held a meeting of the Council on Interethnic Relations on the eve of National Unity Day. The heads of relevant ministries, ethnologists, heads of national cultural autonomies, Cossacks and public associations gathered in the Catherine Hall of the Kremlin.

In total, more than 190 nations live in Russia, which makes our country one of the most multinational states in the world. Each nation has its own language, its own culture and its own customs, which have been coexisting and getting along with each other for centuries. At the meeting, a lot of time was devoted to discussing the results of the first Year of Unity of the Peoples of Russia in the country's history. Its scale is impressive in numbers: thousands of events were held across the country, involving more than 50 million people.

— There has been a noticeable increase in interest in learning national languages, which I consider very important, crafts, and customs. After all, it's so interesting, and it's a great pleasure to get to know such a variety. Moreover, all this is connected with people both with the small homeland for each individual, with his origin, family, and with other regions of our vast country," said Vladimir Putin.

The very idea of holding the Year of Unity has received a huge response in society. According to VTsIOM, 75% of Russians named the value of "unity of peoples" as a priority. This proves that the policy of strengthening the all-Russian identity while preserving the traditions of each of the peoples works flawlessly, making Russia truly strong and indivisible.

"People expressed their attitude by participating in his programs and projects, as well as by their own initiatives, which were put forward by volunteers, public and creative organizations and implemented in rural clubs, schools, libraries, that is, on earth," Vladimir Putin stressed.

The head of state called the Year of Unity of the Peoples of Russia a living illustration of the Strategy of the state national policy, which was launched in 2026 and is designed until 2036.

— In the Year of Unity, we turned to our history, but, in fact, we were building the future. The closest attention was paid to supporting projects that brought together children and youth of different nationalities and faiths on one playground, united young people, united children," he said.

The President urged not to limit successful formats to a time frame: management practices should not end on December 31, but this work should be continued systematically. At the meeting, it was suggested to think about holding a whole Decade of Unity of the peoples of Russia.

Alexander Brod, a member of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, who attended the meeting, noted in an interview with Izvestia that such a decision would comprehensively cover all key areas, from support for national languages, culture and pedagogy to understanding the experience of multinational units in the SVR area, especially since sociological data already record a growing society's demand for traditional values. Special attention should be paid to linguistic diversity. For example, starting from January 1, 2027, the publicly available federal state information system "National Dictionary Fund" will be launched, designed to protect and fix the norms of the literary language.

14 billion rubles have been allocated for core projects for the next three years, said Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Chairman of the Council Tatyana Golikova. But the main thing here is not the amount, but the mechanism: subsidies to the regions are now given only for specific projects selected by the Federal Agency for Nationalities. The money will be allocated on a point-by-point basis - for the implementation of individual projects in specific cities, and not as part of general financing with independent allocation of funds locally, as it was before. The scheme paid off in the first year — the number of projects increased from 50 to 69. And Mashuk, the Knowledge Center in the Caucasus, which has received the status of a federal competence center, will train the people who control this whole machine.

How regions cope with information threats

Tough counteraction to external information threats became one of the key issues on the agenda. Tatiana Golikova said that the risk response system on the Internet has become much faster. Previously, regions could deal with suspicious publications for up to ten days. Now it takes no more than four hours to react.

From January to October 2026, experts monitored online violations without stopping and tried to notice publications in time that could ignite interethnic or interreligious disputes. As a result, 3273 such risky messages were found.

Local authorities have learned to be proactive. Now information about potential conflicts is instantly transmitted to the responsible departments. And as a result, the situation can be brought under control even before the stuffing spreads across the network. Thanks to threat response systems, the proportion of timely incidents increased from 69% to 89%, Tatiana Golikova said.

— Today, external forces are trying to split Russian society. Dear friends, this has always been the case throughout our more than a thousand-year history. And it is clear why Russia eventually became a huge, powerful, influential power, and all our geopolitical opponents, opponents, at different times in different ways, were once enemies, but everyone practically tried to reduce, reduce this strategic potential of Russia, and best of all dismember it itself," Vladimir said. Putin.

The unity of the peoples remains the fundamental condition for the preservation of Russia, its sovereignty and territorial integrity, the President stressed.

One of the participants of the meeting, Rector of St. Petersburg State University Nikolai Kropachev noted that the strength of the state depends on what unites the nation. He cited impressive figures: through the Ministry of Justice's expert support alone, more than 10,000 amendments were proposed to Russian legislation to bring them into line with the decree on traditional spiritual and moral values.

Kropachev also drew attention to the importance of preserving the culture of the country's peoples and suggested that, along with federal dictionaries of the Russian language, the republics form their own explanatory dictionaries of local state languages synchronized with the all-Russian basic values. The pilot experience has already been supported by Karelia, Komi and Yakutia.