Kremlin Gives Few Grants to Non-Russian Republics for Work on Ethnicity and Religion, Figures Show

 Paul Goble

             Staunton, Nov. 10 – The Kremlin has many ways to influence the intellectual life of the non-Russian republics. One of the most prominent of these is the system of presidential grants handed out on the basis of annual competitions since 2017. A new study by a Tatar journalist finds that the center gives few grants for work on ethnicity or religion.

             Instead, Aydar Zinnatullin says, his analysis of the grants actually awarded to people in the republics shows that those subjects remain on “the periphery” of these awards, near the bottom of the 13 categories that Moscow has listed as those it is prepared to support (milliard.tatar/news/grantovedenie-kakie-proekty-moskva-stimuliruet-v-nacionalnyx-respublikax-1144).

             The largest number of applications comes from the largest republics, and the largest number of awards roughly parallels their ranking as well. Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, and Udmurtia apply the most often, and they along with Karelia, get the most grants, while the smaller republics apply less often and get fewer grants.       

             Of all grants awarded to republics, the number going to issues of interethnic and inter-religious concord amounted to only 813 over the past four years, meaning that that category had the ninth largest number of the 13. In many non-Russian areas, the winners focused most often on environmental concerns.

             According to Zinatullin, “the only region in which the theme of inter-ethnic concord received victories equivalent to the maximum predicted relative to applications was the Karachayevo-Cherkessia Republic. But everywhere else it was below that, an indication that the Kremlin isn’t interested in promoting work on this subject.