Statement of the Sámiráđđi on the situation in Russia

The Sámiráđđi, the Council of the indigenous Sámi people, Europe’s only indigenous nation, who bravely stood alongside the Water Protectors here in the United States during the standoff over the Dakota Access Pipeline, has put out this statement from its Russian section:

The Section on the Russian side of the Saami Council cannot ignore the current situation in the country or remain silent about it. In no case will we touch upon the question of who is right and who is wrong, but each of us understands that there is no justification for military action. In any case, all this touches us, so the Section on the Russian side considers it necessary to comment on this topic.

Now, the citizens of the Russian Federation, including the Saami people in Russia, are in a situation where no one knows what awaits us in the future. We cannot plan anything and we find ourselves in a very unstable situation.

Sanctions already introduced by different countries, and possible future sanctions, will primarily hit, not businessmen and owners of mega-corporations and banks, but ordinary residents of the country. Already, prices on the electronics market have increased by 30% in one day, and we expect the prices to increase even more, not only for electronics, but also, for food and essential goods. The sanctions and the measures introduced do not separate the citizens of the Russian Federation by area of work or nationality, so the Saami people in Russia find themselves in an extremely unstable, one might say, dangerous, situation. None of us can predict how the aggravated situation will end, but already now we must be prepared for additional difficulties affecting international work.

For example, the sanctions have affected the work of Russian banks, which means that transactions to Russia will be difficult. This involves both projects and salaries and makes cooperation more difficult. Sberbank has conducted transactions in Norwegian kroner through a US bank, transactions in euros through a German bank, and both of these countries imposed sanctions on working with Sberbank and many other banks.

Now we are talking about the partial blocking of Facebook by Roskomndazor [The federal service for supervision of communications, information technology, and mass media] (partial blocking implies a strong slowdown in traffic on this site).

Russia was suspended from membership in the Council of Europe, the Committee of Foreign Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Council for Human Rights, many sporting events were canceled, and they were suspended from participating in Eurovision. These data are changing very quickly, perhaps at the moment this information is no longer relevant, but the fact remains that international cooperation for Russian citizens, in any direction, is now as difficult as possible.

Some of the countries closed entry for citizens of the Russian Federation, including those who had work and study visas. We do not rule out the possibility of sanctions that will annul existing visas for Russian citizens.

In many documents, the Saami Council states that the Sami are one people who live regardless of state borders. Now, this is high on the agenda, to make sure that the Sami people from the Russian side can continue to participate in international meetings and conferences, including visiting other countries.

Now, more than ever, the Sami people in Russia need international support to continue cooperation between the Sami of the four countries.

We hope that this difficult situation will soon be resolved in the least painful way.

Note that the Sámi, in their own words, find military action wholly unjustified, although they understandably decline to choose a side in the conflict. Sanctions are economic warfare, and if they are not targeted, they will hurt ordinary people. The Sámi understand this, even if modern Western people, who still fancy themselves ever so much more sophisticated and knowledgeable, do not. The only indigenous people in Europe have stood up again alongside Asian indigenous nations like Ainu Moshir (which, like Sápmi, straddles both sides of an arbitrary international border, and which the Japanese government has thrown under the bus again) in demanding for themselves geopolitical neutrality. It is unlikely that the Western powers plus Japan will allow them to take it peacefully.

Speaking personally as an Orthodox blogger based in America, I stand fully with the Sámi and the Ainu peoples, both in calling for an end to the war, and also for maintaining neutrality as far as possible. I call for an immediate end to American sanctions on civilians in Russia, so as not to hurt poor folk and innocents living far from any field of battle.