Ilya Karimdjanov, a prominent Kyrgyzstani blogger, argues [ru] that ethnicity as a criterion for dividing people up into groups “should simply die”. “I really don't understand why people tend to differentiate themselves using the stupid criterion of ethnicity,” he writes. While many people reading the blog agree with Karimdjanov, one reader responds [ru]: “As for me, I would like to preserve my ethnicity… [because] I feel I have a responsibility to preserve the culture, language, traditions, and statehood of my nation”.