The Presence of Absence : Ethnicity Policy in Russia

This paper examines the trajectory of official Russian state policy towards national and ethnic identity since the Soviet collapse. In the absence of a clear principled concept for the national character of the Russian state, policy has been driven by a series of ad hoc, pragmatic steps, amidst failed efforts to establish a coherent new policy. The Yeltsin period saw efforts to introduce a concept of civic identity, downplaying the ethnic component of both the Russian majority and the non-Russian minorities. This policy failed, and though Putin has been more willing to stress the ethnic identity of Russians, the new policy is ambiguous on the status of minority groups, and is more statist than nationalist in orientation