President of Dagestan meets participants of roundtable "Peace to the Caucasus"

On October 26, President of Dagestan Mukhu Aliev held a meeting with the organizers and participants of the roundtable that took place in Makhachkala under the project "Peace to the Caucasus".

The participants of the meeting with the head of Dagestan were Maksim Shevchenko, initiator of the project, TV journalist of Channel One and a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation; Gregory Shvedov, editor-in-chief of the Internet medium "Caucasian Knot"; Alexei Malashenko, an expert of the Moscow Carnegie Centre; and Alexei Sitnikov, secretary of the commission on interethnic relations of the Russian Public Chamber.

According to the TV reporter, he was grateful to the Dagestan leader for "unprecedented openness." "I emphasize once again that I know very few regions, where high-ranking officials are ready to listen to rather critical remarks, and, the main thing, where people are not afraid to express their opinions in such constructive form," Mr Shevchenko has emphasized.

As noted by President of Dagestan Mukhu Aliev, "among the people the idea of religious-political extremism has been discredited." "You may go to any district of Dagestan - nowhere the ideology of departing from Russia is perceived seriously, same as creation of an Islamic state by following these models. Probably, there's a certain handful of 'odd guys' still thinking that it is possible. In the 1990s, there were even certain theorists, who spoke and persuaded people of that. Today, I believe, there're no such moods in Dagestan. And we tell people: well, if you have such convictions, live with them; discuss them with adherents of traditional Islam, debate on these topics. They have their own stand, you have yours. There's enough space on the earth; and we move no obstacles, and we are ready to forget and stop using the words 'Wahhabite - non-Wahhabite' whatsoever," said the President.

According to Mukhu Aliev, those people, "who today destabilize the situation, kill religious figures and make attacks on law enforcers, are usual bandits." "Because they never respond to our invitations and appeals: get legalized, nobody is going to pursue you, let's better keep the condition of dialogue. I think that sooner or later we'll gradually come to dialogue," he believes.

The republic's leader has also answered the question about the distress situation with residents of Gimry. According to the President, he was reported that the problem of electricity supply to the village had been settled; however, he will address the issue again. As he said, in the near future, other problems related to workplaces and help in selling agricultural products would be solve.