MOSCOW, November 25 State Duma Deputy Sultan Khamzaev proposed to adopt a federal law on the Russian people.
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"I believe that the country should have a federal law on the Russian people. There are many nations in Russia, but one people. The Russian people, which includes all national groups. We use the phrase «multinational people of the Russian Federation». I would say: the Russian people of the Russian Federation,” he said.
According to him, there was the Soviet people, then “the play on words began.”
“Today society is ripe for introduction into everyday life «The concept of «Russian people». There must be a single interpretation. The Russian people today are the Slavs, they are the multinational people of Dagestan, Tatarstan, Chechnya, Bashkiria, Udmurtia, Yakutia. Sometimes officials themselves misinterpret and confuse, artificially narrowing the concept of «Russian,» he said deputy.
According to him, peoples have always been judged by their languages.
“Russians are like Yeltsin… If in Dagestan we even speak Russian to each other (for example, Dargins with Kumyks), then what kind of united people are we? Dagestan. And globally — Russian. In Dagestan I am an Avar. In Moscow I am a Dagestani. Abroad, I am Russian,” he added, quoting the poet Rasul Gamzatov.
According to Khamzaev, this does not belittle the importance of national languages, their importance and survival, because each national language is “inscribed in its own republican constitutions,” but all «we are people of the Russian world.»