Speaking in Khabarovsk at a meeting of the Culture Ministry’s Coordination Council on Culture in July, Culture Minister Alexander Avdeyev noted that the level of quality and proficiency of spoken Russian and the general level of literacy among Russians have significantly deteriorated in recent years. The minister has attributed the negative trends to the activation of internal migration processes in the country. “To a large extent, people have begun to speak worse Russian due to these migration processes. This is evident, not only in daily speeches among ordinary folks, but also in official speeches on radio and television.”
However, the minister, who also talked on social harmony, used the podium to call for social tolerance among people living in areas with their old traditions and cultures, which have become default destinations for migrants who also have their own traditions and customs. “It is important to learn to respect foreign cultures that come through migration and foreign labor force,” he said. “This is very important because to successfully build a civil society it is necessary to develop national solidarity and tolerance to various national cultures.”