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Along with the Presidium members, also taking part in the meeting were Director of the Federal Agency for Ethnic Affairs Igor Barinov, representatives of the Russian Government staff, federal ethnic and cultural organisations, and members of the expert and academic communities.

The main reason for holding the meeting, in Mr Magomedov’s words, was President Vladimir Putin’s decision to establish a prize for contributions to strengthening Russian national unity.

This presidential prize will give highest recognition to Russian citizens’ services to society and the country and will be awarded for fruitful work to reinforce the national civic identity and spiritual common community of Russia’s multi-ethnic people, harmonise interethnic relations, and develop Russia’s ethnic and cultural diversity. The prize will be awarded annually, starting this year, and will come with prize money of 2.5 million rubles.

The President will decide on the prize’s laureates based on proposals from the Council for Interethnic Relations.

“In this respect, we have a lot of work ahead,” Mr Magomedov said. “This is especially the case this year. Essentially, the Council’s Presidium must organise a system for selecting worthy candidates. I am sure there will be many worthy names. We will need to work hard, so that on November 4, National Unity Day, the President will be able to award the prize for the first time.”

The Presidium also examined preparations for an upcoming meeting of the Council for Interethnic Relations to discuss current issues in implementing Russia’s State Ethnic Policy Strategy through to 2025.

Mr Magomedov congratulated the meeting participants on the upcoming holidays and noted the particular importance of the Victory Day holiday. “This holiday we hold most dear has tremendous significance for our multi-ethnic people and for our young people’s patriotic education, and therefore for state ethnic policy in general,” he said.

The Council Presidium adopted the relevant decisions following the meeting.