Head of the Federal Agency for National Affairs (FNA) Igor Barinov.
Photo: Andrey Minaev. Go to Photobank KP
The head of the Federal Agency for Nationalities Affairs (FNA) Igor Barinov visited the open studio of Komsomolskaya Pravda at the Eastern Economic Forum, where he spoke about the protection of the rights of national minorities, the specifics of work in the annexed territories, and the development of the Great Ethnographic Dictate.
THE CONVENTION HAD A DISCRIMINATING CHARACTER
– Igor Vyacheslavovich, the Council of Europe’s framework conventions on the protection of national minorities have ceased to apply in Russia. Will anything change in the agency’s work?
– I think that nothing will change in the work of the FADN, except that we will approach our functionality more responsibly in this regard. Well, the denunciation of this framework agreement was already formal. We left the Council of Europe. Moreover, it was initially largely discriminatory in nature in relation to the Russian Federation, because we were looked at under a microscope and we had practically no opportunity or influence to protect, for example, the Russian-speaking population in the Baltic countries or Ukraine. This is an objective process. The rights of our national minorities are enshrined in the Constitution, in various federal documents and in regional legal acts. Therefore, let our “friends” not worry, they will not be able to achieve peace and interethnic harmony in our country. And we will continue to pay great attention to this area.
– What are the specifics of the current implementation of national policy in the new Russian regions?
– The main specificity, of course, is the Bandera nationalist legacy that we inherited from this pseudo-state, which is now called “Ukraine”. And here we must pay tribute to our Western opponents, who almost immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union began systematic work in the post-Soviet space. Particular emphasis was placed on Ukraine, where, in fact, from kindergarten, from children’s books, games, school textbooks, our common history was distorted, scoundrels and bastards emerged from oblivion and became national heroes, scoundrels whose hands were stained with blood up to their elbows, streets are named after them. Now, of course, especially among young people, it is necessary to carry out a great educational work to remove all this husk and rubbish from their heads, so that everything is put on the shelves. In particular, let us remember that we are brotherly peoples, our attitude to May 9, to our common history…
Here at the forum we signed an agreement on interaction with the knowledge society; together we will carry out educational work in new regions. By the way, in fact, in the spring of 2022 we began to travel to our new regions and involve our largest public organizations and national-cultural autonomies in this work. From the very beginning, this work was not only humanitarian. Yes, we delivered humanitarian cargo where it was most needed, but we also met with people, mainly students, to talk about the reasons for the special military operation, about our joint history, about real heroes who deserve it.
THE NUMBER OF TUVANIANS INCREASED THREE TIMES
– Small nations are disappearing all over the world. Only in Russia their number has remained practically unchanged. What is more important: the hard work of the FADN or the historically established ethnic balance?
– Of course, in many ways it remains a historical system of management of the outskirts of our country. The first legislative act on management of foreigners, which is almost 300 years old, already established the basic principles of interaction between the centre and the periphery in order to preserve the unique traditions, culture and customs of small towns.
Today, in the section devoted to indigenous minorities, the former head of Tuva, Sholban Valerievich Kara-ool, now Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, spoke about how life has changed in Tuva. This is the youngest subject of the Russian Federation, it is only 80 years old (in 1944 it became part of the USSR as the Tuvan Autonomous Region – “KP”). The population has changed significantly: if at the time of entry it was about 70 thousand people, now it is 240 thousand. This says a lot about how we historically treat the development of national peripheries. Often, with great restraint, resources were directed to the development of culture, education and the creation of the industrial potential of these regions.
If we speak specifically about indigenous and small-scale peoples, then their rights are separately enshrined in the Constitution. Because it is they who, due to the peculiarities of their settlement and lifestyle, are exposed to a certain risk, because they often lead a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle, live in difficult natural conditions, when there is no access to education, to the benefits that have now become commonplace for us: the Internet, communications, television, etc. And here, of course, there is still a lot of work to be done, although the projects that are already being implemented sometimes simply cause real envy among our opposition colleagues abroad. I tell you that during the pandemic, when the meetings of the UN Permanent Forum on Sustainable Development of Indigenous Peoples were held online, all our colleagues went on air from their offices, offices, and I and the then Governor of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug Natalya Vladimirovna Komarova came to the reindeer herder camp, where satellite broadband Internet was installed, and made contact directly from the camp, together with the head of the camp, his family and children. And this was also perceived as something impossible. Yes, many projects, including the nomadic school, simply amaze our colleagues abroad.
– Every year, the RICA of Russia holds the Great Ethnographic Dictation. How will this year’s dictation differ from previous ones? Are there any noticeable trends towards changes in the level of ethnographic literacy of its participants?
– The dictation has become a significant event on a national scale. Last year, more than 3.5 million people took part. All subjects of the Russian Federation took part. But the surprising thing is that there are 200 countries. There is a genuine interest in the traditions, culture, customs of our country and abroad. Surprisingly, even in the context of a special military operation, the largest number of foreign participants came from Ukraine.
But we never set out to test our participants’ erudition or their ethnographic literacy as an end in itself. Still, the main goal is to draw attention to others, to the colossal ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity of our country. I think we are succeeding. How will the dictation be different this year? For the first time, any participant in the dictation can become a co-author of it. And now we are accepting questions from future participants. The dictation will include the most ingenious and interesting questions, and the winners will receive valuable prizes from the Federal Agency for National Affairs, bearing the symbols of the ethnographic dictation.
