‘They want total control’: how Russia is forcing Sami people to hide their identity

Miranda Bryant Nordic correspondent

2024 Sep 20
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Sami people in Russia are being forced to hide their identity and live “outside the law” for fear of imprisonment and persecution, leading figures from the community have warned, after the government labelled dozens of Indigenous organizations terrorists and extremists.

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In July, Russia’s ministry of justice added 55 Indigenous organizations to a list of terrorists and extremists, meaning that representatives of the groups – and anyone who takes part, cooperates or communicates with them – risk being sentenced to years in prison.

It is the latest in a long line of legislation restricting the rights of Indigenous people in Russia, including the introduction of a “register” of Indigenous people.

Many are trying to hide their Sami identity in an attempt to avoid being targeted by authorities, Sami activists said, while others are living in exile after seeking asylum in neighboring Norway and Finland.

Andrei Danilov, a representative of the Sami People from the Kola peninsula who sought political asylum in Norway in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said: “Only activists have been persecuted in the past. Now they can imprison everyone who is in contact with them. I would compare this to the period of Soviet repression in the 1930s.”

“Many Sami will hide their nationality. As it was in Soviet times,” added Danilov, 53, who lives in a refugee camp in northern Norway and is unable to work because he does not yet have refugee status. “But it will be more difficult to do this in the age of digitization.”

Activists, he said, can be imprisoned for six or more years, and Sami people have no way of defending their rights. During the past two years, preparations have been under way to build a lithium deposit in the Fedorovya tundra of the Murmansk region, an important site for Sami people which they are being put under pressure to develop. If it is allowed to continue, the tundra will be destroyed for ever, said Danilov.

Andrei Zhvavyi, 36, a Sami activist, lived in Lovozero in the Murmansk region of Russia. He now lives in Finland, where he is seeking asylum. Photograph: Supplied
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“The Indigenous peoples of Russia have become peoples outside the law. Migrants on their land without rights, without freedom of speech. And their lands have become colonies of the Kremlin under the laws of Putin’s regime,” he said.

The International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia (ICIPR) has sent a memorandum signed by about 100 Indigenous organizations citing Russia’s violations of the rights of Indigenous people and minorities to the UN. In the letter, they said Indigenous leaders have been “subjected to increasingly severe repression”, citing the death of Sergei Kechimov. The reindeer herder, who fought to protect the sacred Lake Imlor in Siberia from damage by oil companies, died from cancer earlier this year while under investigation.

Andrei Zhvavyi, 36, left his home in Lovozero in the Murmansk region two years ago and now lives in Finland where he is seeking political asylum. The Sami activist and member of Oosmo, a legal assistance and cultural heritage organization in the Kola peninsula, said Sami people in Russia have been left with very little to protect their human rights, culture and language.

“People who are still in Russia will be careful in expressing their opinion on these issues because it could cost them their freedom,” he said, adding that the Sami community was losing its identity.

Aleksandr Slupachik, 35, is waiting in northern Norway for his asylum application to be processed after leaving Russia, where he was chair of Oosmo, two years ago after coming under pressure from the FSB. After waiting in a refugee camp in Norway for a year, he and his wife now live in a flat and work as cleaners.
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