Press Release, January 23, 2014

Today, YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin made a report at the international conference “Theory and practices of compatibility of cultures, customs and traditions in the former Soviet Union areas: from conflicts to peace and harmony in the Stavropol region and the Northern Caucasus”. The event was held in the Budennovsk branch of the Institute of Friendship of Peoples of the Caucasus.

Nikolai Lyashenko, Director of the Budennovsk branch of the Institute of Friendship of Peoples of the Caucasus was the moderator of the conference. He is also known for organizing resistance to Shamil Basayev’s terrorists when he worked as the police chief of the city.

In his speech Sergei Mitrokhin said the YABLOKO party is not merely against nationalism but is also actively fighting against it. “Ethnic nationalism is especially dangerous. It destroys and weakens the country from within. But it is to the advantage of both the internal and the external enemies of Russia,” said YABLOKO’s leader. He stressed that the responsibility for inciting ethnic hatred lied on the state which failed to solve pressing social conflicts, encouraged mass-scale illegal migration and contributed to corruption.

“Often law enforcement agencies pay attention on the nationality of the perpetrator in the first place, rather than the crime itself. When a crime is given some “ethnic coloring”, it naturally leads to social tension, ” Sergei Mitrokhin remarked.

The path towards interethnic peace lies, according to the YABLOKO leader, in the creation of mechanisms of the rule of law and establishment of the rule of law when no criminal would be able to avoid responsibility.

Nikolai Kartsev, YABLOKO member, Chair of the local YABLOKO branch and Deputy Chair of the Vostok Association of the Public Chambers of the Stavropol Territory, told the participants about the influence of the corruption in the area on aggravation of the inter-ethnic situation.

The conference was also attended by Viktor Kazantsev, former Presidential Envoy to the Southern Federal District, Alexander Karmantchikov, Chairman of the Public Chamber of the Neftekumsk district, Alexander Korobeynikov, Minister of Regional Development of the Stavropol Territory, Tayana Ledovich, Rector of the Institute of Friendship of Peoples of the Caucasus, Abdula Omarov, leader of the Dagestan ex-pat community, Igor Savvin, head of the Centre for the Studies of Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Urals and the Volga Region, Georgy Safarov, head of the Armenian ex-pats community, Vladimir Sukhov, Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Georgy Safarov, head of the Armenian diaspora, Vladimir Sukhov, Director of the regional public organisation “International Nonviolence”, Alexander Yurchenko Mayor of Budennovsk and others.

Tomorrow Sergei Mitrokhin will lay flowers at the memorial to the victims of the terrorists’ attack in the city. After that he will have a meeting with residents of the area.