Moscow’s Policies on Numerically Small Peoples Out of Date and Must be Fundamentally Changed, Russia’s Justice Minister Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 7 – Russian Justice Minister Konstantin Chuichenko says that Moscow’s approach to the numerically small peoples of the North and Far East is “outdated” and must be changed because many of its provisions were adopted in the 1990s on the basis of recommendations from Western advisors.

            Speaking at a session on relations between these peoples and the indigenous nationalities at the Eastern Economic Forum, Chuichenko gave no details about the precise policy changes he wants to see, although his concern about relations between these peoples and business is likely one area (indigenous-russia.com/archives/50023).

            But the fact that he made such a statement and blamed current problems on the fact that in the 1990s Russian officials listened to Western experts in coming up with legal arrangements for the numerically small peoples suggests that Moscow’s approach to them may soon be subject to a wholesale rewrite.

            One indication that this process has begun is a report that Putin has told the government to come up with arrangements that will allow the benefits that numerically small peoples receive continue even if the numbers of one or more of them rise to above the current upper threshold of 50,000 ( nazaccent.ru/content/45912-vladimir-putin-garantiroval-gospodderzhku-korennym-narodam-svyshe-50-tysyach-chelovek/).

            Not only has Russia been much criticized both because it is almost the only country in the world which sets an upper limit in the numbers of peoples who can be counted on as numerically small indigenous peoples but it now faces a crisis in that one of the nations on its list of 47, the Nenets, will soon exceed 50,000 (indigenous-russia.com/archives/50018).

            Were the Nenets to lose those benefits, many of them might become furious; and because they live in a major oil and gas producing area, any such anger could complicate Moscow’s development of those major export earning raw materials, a development Putin certainly wants to avoid.

            The Russian president has directed that a new rule that would allow the Nenets and in future other indigenous peoples who might exceed the 50,000 number to continue to get benefits is to be prepared by December 1.  But there is another ahead if Moscow makes a move in that direction.

            If the new rule specifies that such regulations apply only to those nationalities already on the list of 47, that will raise questions among others who are just above the 50,000 level already or yet others who may see their numbers fall below that threshold in the future. In either case, there is likely to be anger and activism in response.