Nation-building in Post-Soviet Russia: comparing 1990s and 2000s policies

President Putin has suddenly supported the idea of passing a special law on the Russian nation. To be precise, the new law would be called “On the Russian Nation and the Management of Interethnic Relations.” If there is a law on the Russian nation, it will almost certainly tie ethnicity in with national security issues. In this thesis I try to explain how Russian state shapes all-Russians (rossiiskaya) identity. A civic Russian (rossiiskaya) nation, whose members are all citizens of the RF, regardless of their ethnic and cultural background, united by loyalty to newly emerging political institutions and to the constitution. A major challenge for Russia will continue to be maintaining its territorial integrity while building a democratic society within which all people, religions, and cultures enjoy equal rights. A parallel challenge will be to develop a civic sense of Russian nationalism that allows for a degree of cultural plurality and a measure of autonomy for ethnic and religious minorities while ensuring that they remain loyal citizens of the Russian Federation.