Russia Lacks Enough Ethnic Specialists to Address Nationality Issues, Duma Told

Paul Goble

    Staunton, Apr. 10 – The Russian Federation currently lacks the number of ethnic specialists needed to address nationality issues, participants in a hearing of the Duma Committee on Nationality Affairs said; and without them, it will be difficult for Moscow to address them successfully.

     Academician Valery Tishkov, former nationalities minister and former director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, said that having enough such experts is critical for solving a large number of domestic and foreign policy tasks (nazaccent.ru/content/43808-v-gosdume-zayavili-o-nehvatke-kadrov-v-sfere-mezhnacionalnyh-otnoshenij-i-etnologii/ and t.me/v_v_ivanov_z/2601).

    Vladimir Ivanov., chairman of the Duma committee said that to address the shortage, an effective system of the preparation of scholarly workers, instructors and specialists in this area must be developed, the outlines of which he suggested had been set by a labor ministry directive already in 2018.

    This year, Ivanov continued, work is continuing on that project with particular attention being given to economic development projects in the Far East and Far North, a focus that means more ethnic specialists must be drawn from the numerically smaller peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East.

    While those participating in this session were expressing positions that reflected their particular interests, the fact that this subject is now being discussed again at the Duma level indicates that the powers that be in Moscow are increasingly concerned about developments affecting ethnic relations that have been arising below the radar screen of the regime.

    The author of these lines, however much he disagrees with Moscow’s policies and the positions some of the scholars at this Duma meeting have taken on various issues, remains proud that in the early 1990s, he oversaw a program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to encourage young Russian ethnographers to remain in the field.

    That program lasted only for two or three years, but it came at a time when many aspirant in Moscow were leaving the field for more lucrative jobs elsewhere. If only a few stayed because of it, I am pleased as I recognize how important it is for countries like Russia to have expertise on ethnic issues.