Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia must deal with ethnic tensions within its borders or risk being torn apart.
In a blog for the Huffington Post UK, the Russian prime minister, who hopes to return to the post of president in this year's election, said "one of the main conditions for our country’s very existence is civil and interethnic harmony".
"For Russia – with its multitude of languages, traditions, ethnicities and cultures - the national question is fundamental. Any responsible politician or public figure must be aware that one of the main conditions for our country’s very existence is civil and interethnic harmony," he said.
"Attempts to create a mono-ethnic Russian state run contrary to our thousand-year history and are the shortest path to the destruction of the Russian people and state, as well as to any other viable sovereign state on this earth."
He also said that the country's constitution needed to be reformed to allow elected regional governors. But he said he could not allow for the creation of regional parties, including in the national republics, as this was "a direct path to separatism".
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union the region been plagued by ethnic conflict, including the long war between Russia and Chechens.
Putin called for the creation of a "Eurasian Union" to greater manage ethnic-tensions. "A tighter integration of the post-Soviet territory is a real alternative to uncontrolled migration flows," he said. "One of the most important tasks of the Eurasian integration is to create the opportunity to live and prosper with dignity for millions of people."
The Russian prime minister who is on course to return to the Kremlin this year was criticised by liberal opponent Grigory Yavlinsky after it emerged he could be blocked from standing the election.
Yavlinsky said the move was a "political decision" taken to ensure Putin gained over 50% of the vote needed to avoided a run off election.
"I think that Vladimir Putin is the one who makes these decisions," Yavlinsky told reporters. "Who else would make them?"