Since 2012, legislation has existed in Russia that requires non-governmental organizations (NGOs) engaged in “political activity” and receive foreign funding to register with the government as a ‘foreign agent’. The initial law required that the organizations voluntarily contact the Ministry of Justice to register as foreign agents, though few NGOs did so voluntarily.
Being labelled as a foreign agent holds negative connotations from the Soviet era, calling into question the organization and its member’s patriotism. However, in April 2014, Russia’s Constitutional Court ruled that this label has no negative connotation from the Soviet era, and that having such designations coincide with both public and state interests.
Additionally, the definition of “political activity” was so vague that just about anything related to human rights can meet the classification. When combining these two factors, there were few groups who would voluntarily register under this classification even after the April 2014 ruling.
In May 2014 Russia amended the law, but not in the way that the NGO community had hoped for. Instead, the Ministry of Justice received the authority to conduct investigations and register groups as foreign agents without the group’s consent, so long as the organization met the requirements of vaguely defined political activity and received foreign funds.
The list of ‘foreign agents’ amongst the Russian NGO community is extensive, including well recognized groups like the Memorial human rights organization and Golos election monitors.
So why the recap of this oft-discussed law? Well, Russia’s Ministry of Justice has added yet another Russian NGO to the controversial Foreign Agents list and this latest addition is not well known. On 11 March 2016, the International Fund for Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East, or the Batani Fund, found its place on the list.
The Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON), with the support of the Danish company TGK Consult, established the Batani Fund in 2004 and the UN Economic and Social Council gave it Special Consultative Status in 2008. As its association with RAIPON would indicate, the Batani Fund’s work is focused on Russia’s indigenous peoples in the North.
Given its rather isolated and geographically large, though numerically small, mandate within the larger Russia, the inclusion of the Batani Fund onto the foreign agent list seems rather arbitrary. However, it is not the first northern indigenous group that has received the label from the Justice Ministry, with the Centre for the Support of the Indigenous Peoples of the North (CSPIN) being labelled as a foreign agent in November 2015.
The Arctic is an area of strategic interest to Russia, and the Kremlin’s continental shelf claims have the potential to unlock a great deal of offshore resource wealth. Moreover, there are also substantial reserves of untapped resources onshore in Russia’s North, which tends to be underpopulated and quite isolated. But the Russian North is also where many of Russia’s indigenous peoples such as the Sami, Evenk, Yupik, and Nenets, have traditionally lived.
However, Russian legislation has specific categorizations of indigenous groups. The Sakha are an example of an indigenous group in Russia that has no status as one. Instead, Russian law, rather than identifying indigenous groups, identifies small numbered peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East that have a population of no more than 50,000. This includes the Sami, the Evenk, Yupik, and Nenets, groups whose territorial homeland stretches along Russia’s northern coast from the Barents Sea to the Bering Strait, a region that holds vast resource potential.
The Justice Ministry clarified what it considers to be “political activity” on January 26, 2016. This legislation defines political activity as participation in the “field of nation-building and the foundations of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation, the federal structure, the sovereignty, and [the] territorial integrity of the Russian Federation.” With a clearer definition, the state can now promote economic development in the North without fear of NGOs interfering.
Using this definition of “political activity” given by the Justice Ministry, groups acting in any way that the state deems as opposition to their perception of the national interest can be viewed as politically active. In the Arctic, this perception of national interest includes territorial expansion and economic development and showing concern for short term economic gains made at the long term expense of the environment and traditional culture of the indigenous peoples is to be against the country’s Arctic interests. With the small numbered peoples of the Russian Arctic, should these issues be brought forward by their organizations, they can (and apparently will) be classified as a ‘foreign agent’ that receives foreign funds for political activity aimed at hindering the promotion of Russian interests within its own territory.
As such, handing out labels to the indigenous groups is an easy first step in reducing public support for the small groups inhabiting isolated parts of Russia while playing up the benefits for the nation as a whole. While the suppression and demonization of indigenous groups (or more broadly NGOs) through the current law is problematic from the Western perspective, control in an area deemed to be of strategic importance makes sense from the Russian perspective.
The perceived promotion of national interest at the expense of its people has proven to be the norm for the Kremlin and labelling indigenous groups in the North as foreign agents appears to be nothing more than a continuation of this policy. It allows the state to invest in its Arctic territory while the public perceives the regionally concerned groups as working against the national interest. An important lesson can be drawn from this; criticality can mean disloyalty.
Ian Litschko holds a Masters in Politics and Economics in Eurasia from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) and is currently working on his second Masters in Russian and Eurasian Studies at Carleton University. He is currently researching Russian military doctrine and Arctic security.
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