Pomors repeat demand for status as indigenous people
The 2002 census in Russia gave new impetus to the Pomor demand for official status as indigenous people. Pomors were then included as a separate ethnic entity in the list of nationalities. About 7,000 people, mostly in Arkhangelsk Oblast, chose to define themselves as "Pomors". The process of official recognition has since come to a halt, mostly because of Russian bureaucrats' apparent unwillingness to proceed with the process. Editor-in-chief of the newspaper Biznes-Klass, Ivan Moiseev, now strongly criticizes both federal authorities and regional governor Nikolay Kiselyov for not taking action in the Pomor question.
Moiseev stresses in an editorial that Russian bureaucrats blocks an official
recognition of the Pomors as an indigenous people. Since being included in the
list of nationalities in the 2002 census, the Pomors have not been able to
proceed with the process of recognition. The editor says that the Pomors was to
be included in the federal list of indigenous peoples in 2004, but that the case
has come to a halt first because of the reorganization of the Ministry of
Nationalities into the Ministry of Regional Development an then because of a
bureaucratic stalemate. Moiseev now openly accuses Russian authorities for
deliberate postponing the issue until the few remaining Pomors have perished. He
also criticizes governor Kiselyov for abstaining to discuss the issue with
federal authorities.
Official status as indigenous people gives the right to certain economic advantages within natural resource exploitation. The groups, which get the status, can according to Russian legislation, not be bigger than 50,000 people.
BarentsObserver.com, 4 October 2005
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