The West is trying to promote its ideals and norms in Russia, threatening the political stability in the country, and this expansion must be countered more effectively, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said on Tuesday, speaking in Khanty-Mansiysk at a meeting on national security in the Ural Federal District.
According to Patrushev, the world is witnessing a revision of fundamental values, and sensitive issues of interethnic and interreligious relations are becoming the subject of geopolitical games and speculation. "Against this background, attempts are being made by Western countries aimed at destroying Russian spiritual and moral values, falsifying history, fomenting interethnic conflicts and promoting ideas of separatism and nationalism," Patrushev said.
According to him, for this purpose, national diasporas, ethnic communities, public and religious associations "are drawn into the orbit of influence of various foreign non-profit non-governmental organizations in order to destabilize the social and political situation and discredit the activities of the authorities."
"The promotion by the West of ideals and norms alien to Russia and the imposition of various reforms from outside threatens social harmony, cultural sovereignty and political stability," Patrushev said. Countering this Western expansion in Russia must be more active, he added.
"To this end, it is necessary to increase the effectiveness of measures aimed at strengthening the unity and spiritual community of the multinational people of Russia. Exclude the formal approach in this work, pay more attention to the formation of motivation for conscious moral behavior and respect for other cultures and worldviews," Patrushev stressed.
In his opinion, it's also necessary to make Russian society intolerant to the propaganda of ideas of nationalistic exceptionalism, to suppress attempts to cultivate nationalistic propaganda and the distortion of historical truth. In addition, it is necessary to more actively identify and suppress the activities of various structures aimed at undermining interethnic peace and harmony and inciting ethnic and religious discord, Patrushev noted.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS