Finno-Ugric World Suspends Cooperation with Co-Ethnics in Russia over Putin’s War in Ukraine

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 16 – The Tallinn-based Finno-Ugric Institute has announced that it and the Finno-Ugric world of the West is suspending cooperation with the Finno-Ugric nations living within the current borders of the Russian Federation which have come out in support of Putin’s war in Ukraine.

            Yesterday, the Institute released the following text, an informal translation of which follows (fennougria.ee/ru/fenno-ugria-osuzhdaet-voennye-dejstviya-rossii-na-ukraine/):

Basing itself on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948,

Supporting the Declaration of Basic Principles, Goals and Tasks for Cooperation among the Finno-Ugric Peoples of the World adopted at the first World congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples on December 3, 1992, which defined itself as a voluntary union of related and equal peoples who have joined the all-European process of security and cooperation and set as its goal the realization of international norms in the area of the rights of people to self-determination, the rights of indigenous peoples, national minorities and human rights,

And supporting the resolution on “Aggression Against Ukraine” adopted by the UN General Assembly on March 2, 2022, in which the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine was condemned and a call for the immediate end of this aggression was included,

We consider that the military actions unleashed by the Russian Federation in Ukraine violate the norms of international law and are in fact criminal;

We condemn the March 10, 2022, declaration of the Association of Finno-Ugric Peoples of Russia in support of those military actions;

We do not consider possible cooperation with those organizations and individuals from among the Finno-Ugric peoples who support military actions against Ukraine as possible until they stop supporting the anti-human actions of the leadership of their country;

We call on the Finno-Ugric peoples to turn back to the values characteristic of our peoples in which there is no place for the justification of war and force;

We condition to support the Finno-Ugric peoples in their work for the development of national languages and cultures; and

We value the languages and cultures of the Finno-Ugric peoples as part of our common identity.