Paul
Goble
Staunton, November 18 – “For the
first time ever,” an article in “Novaya gazeta”on Friday says, the Russian
government of Vladimir Putin has given an honest explanation on why it has been
moving against ethnic leaders and their community organizations: Such people, officials
suggest, “interfere with business.”
The “Novaya gazeta” article focuses
on the Russian justice ministry’s recent decision to suspend the activities o
the Association of Indigenous Numerically Small Peoples of the North, Siberia and
the Far East (RAIPON) for supposed violations of that group of Russian laws on
public organizations (www.novayagazeta.ru/economy/55433.html).
Moscow in fact took that step and
others like it, according to human rights activists and ecologists, because, in
the words of “Novaya,” “the regime is cleansing the space from which resources
are being extracted and thereby making it as convenient as possible” for the
businesses involved to do so.
RAIPON presents particular problems
for Moscow, the paper continues, because it defends “the interests of the time
immemorial population” of an enormous resource-rich part of the country,
because its leaders are outspoken, and because it enjoys the status of a
permanent participant in the Arctic Council, which brings together the eight
countries of the Arctic.
And its leaders are not shy about
using their international connections to bring pressure on Moscow. Rodion Zulyandziga, the organization’s first
vice president, told “Novya” hat he had just returned from Stockholm where he
had spoken out against the Russian government’s latest actions against his
organization and against the peoples of his region.
The industrialization of the Russian
North is proceeding very rapidly, he said, and today “the indigenous peoples
are one of the last barriers on the path of companies and governments seeking
to extract these resources.” In that situation, “it is easy to apply force
measures, using selective legal actions” in order not to spend “extra efforts,
time and resources in negotiations with the indigenous peoples.”
According to Zyulyandziga, Moscow is
seeking to take control of the situation in the Russian North by a police of “’divide
and conquer’” and has plans to “lower the status of [RAIPON] and fiind a
replacement” that will be more cooperative at home and reflect Moscow’s wishes
in international venues like the Arctic Council and the United Nations.
Moscow’s move against RAIPON is part
of a broader campaign. Last month, the FSB moved against the Dylacha ethnic
community in Buryatia so that a Russian company could get control of jade
mining there. Moreover, the Russian authorities have accused Ivan
Moiseyev, a Pomor activist of treason. His trial starts this week.
And clearly under guidance from the
Kremlin, the Duma rejected a proposal that would have created an ethnological
expertise body. Such a group would have been allowed to way in on business
projects, getting in the way of mining in the North and the construction of
hydro-dams in many parts of the Russian Federation
Moiseyev
and especially RAIPON have already attracted widespread attention and support (www.peoples-rights.info/otkrytoe-pismo-vladimiru-putinu-ob-antipravovom-zakrytii-minyustom-rf-associacii-korennyx-malochislennyx-narodov-severa-sibiri-i-dalnego-vostoka-rossijskoj-federacii/),
and the Social Chamber is set to discuss these issues on Monday (raipon.info/component/content/article/1-novosti/3608------------lr.html).
This media attention has led at
least one Moscow commentator to speculate on whether all this is intended to
create a situation where President Vladimir Putin can interfere and present
himself as the savior of the North (www.mk.ru/politics/article/2012/11/15/774933-pomozhet-li-putin-narodam-severa.html).
But given his priorities, that seems a very distant hope.
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