You're reading: Putin: Russian society will not be split ethnically, religiously

BOLGAR - Russians will not allow society to be split ethnically and religiously, said President Vladimir Putin.

“The united, multi-ethnic, strong Russian nation cannot be defeated
because truth and justice are on the side of millions of people, people
who fear nothing and cannot be intimidated and know the price of peace.
Our people will not allow Russian society to be torn apart and split
ethnically and religiously in order to weaken Russia and ruin our shared
home,” Putin said while bestowing state awards on Muslim clergymen who
were victims of terrorist attacks in Bolgar.

Religious tolerance “has for centuries served as one of the
foundations of the Russian statehood,” the president said. “It is this
aspect that is attacked by those who are trying to ruin this statehood,
and clergy and priests of traditional religions have always guarded
peace and accord within our shared homeland,” Putin said.

Putin awarded the Order of Courage to the widow of Valiulla Yakupov,
the slain chief of the educational department of the Spiritual
Administration of Muslims of Tatarstan (SAMT), and the Order of
Friendship to SAMT Chairman mufti Ildus Faizov who was injured in a
terrorist attack.

Faizov’s car exploded in Kazan on July 19, 2012. Yakupov was shot
dead on the stairs of his house an hour earlier. Terrorism and attempted
murder inquiries have been launched and are being probed as one
criminal case.