Permanent participants of the Arctic Council
Indigenous small-numbered peoples of Russian Federation
Russia has 40 legally recognized Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East. Of the 40 Indigenous Peoples, 11 live around or above the Arctic Circle, the largest groups including Dolgan, Nganasan, Nenets, Saami, Khanty, Chukchi, Evenk, Even, Enets, Eskimo (Yupik) and Yukagir.
The Russian Arctic is an immense territory that stretches over 24,150 kilometers of coastline and includes:
- The whole of the Murmansk Region and the Nenets, Yamal-Nenets and Chukotka Autonomous Okrugs
- The northern municipalities of the Arkhangelsk Region, the Komi Republic, Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)
- The archipelagoes and islands in the Russian portion of the Arctic Ocean
Russia stretches over 53 percent of the Arctic Ocean coastline. Approximately two and a half million of Russia’s inhabitants live in Arctic territory, accounting for nearly half of the population living in the Arctic worldwide. Therefore, efficient and sustainable development of the Arctic is one of the key national priorities of the Russian Federation.
Other key national interests in the Arctic include:
Arctic is a part of the planet's territory, including the Arctic Basin and the Arctic zone, which includes the adjacent shelves with islands of mainland origin.
In the modern world, with its high multilevel interconnectedness, in order to understand the prospects of the Russian Arctic zone, it seems necessary to outline the external conditions of its development, placing the problems of the region in a global political and economic context.
Reindeer herding is the breeding of domesticated reindeer, the most important agricultural sector in the far north. It is widespread throughout the northern latitudes of Asia and Europe (from the Chukchi Peninsula to Scandinavia. Although wild reindeer were abundant in North America, the indigenous population did not domesticate it. There is no exact information about the time and place of the reindeer origin: the oldest evidence is considered to be wooden figurines of bridled deer found in the burial ground of the Tashtyk culture (1st century BCE - 5th century CE) in Khakassia.
‘Йоҥчэдиэ’ project (from the Yukaghir language it means ‘a bell’) took place thanks to the support of a grant from the head of the Rupublic of Sakha (Yakutia) among the media. A total of 200 releases have been prepared, with forty five-minute TV lessons in each language. The project is designed for people who do not speak or have poor command of their native language.
