The principle of national self-determination proclaimed by the American president Woodrow Wilson many years ago is still topical today. The main threat to this principle is the policy built on the tenet "one ethnos - one state," which provokes numerous bloody ethnic conflicts that are often burdened by confessional factor. Two world largest federations - Russia and India - faced similar problems. Events in the Chechen Republic and in the states of Jammu and Kashmir clearly show that the Russian and the Indian authorities were not ready for a massive invasion of Islam into political life, when...