In addition, the Chechen president said that nationalism in Russia should be treated as equivalent to terrorism. "The fact is that there should be no nationalists in Russia, which is a multiethnic state. If I were the leader of the country, I would push through a law in the State Duma that would equate nationalists with terrorists. We send our young people away to study, and they are simply killed and dumped. These are not human beings; they are worse than terrorists. At least terrorists have an ideology, some kind of goal. But what do these people want? For everyone to leave? And who would remain then? We need to fight them intensively and ruthlessly," he said. http://www.newsru.com/russia/03feb2009/ramzan.html via smitrich A commendable initiative from Ramzan Akhmadovich. He can start fighting it right now. And he does not even have to go far. For example, yesterday the newly appointed head of the republic’s branch of the Federal Tax Service, Vladimir Radchenko, was not allowed into Dagestan. A federal official was simply blocked from entering the republic because the previous head of the tax service had been a Lezgin (an ethnic group native to the eastern Caucasus), and local residents believe that the post should be reserved for a Lezgin. Appointing a Russian runs counter to the "will of the people." If they removed a Lezgin, then they should appoint a Lezgin too. In my view, this is a disgusting display of radical nationalism and xenophobia. I have never heard of Russians blocking the entrance to a government office and preventing officials from entering because a non-Russian had been appointed somewhere. But never mind. Ramzan Akhmadovich should sort it out.