-    The association of Yasavey must agree on bills that affect the lives and situation of indigenous peoples, Aleksandr Belugin stated in an interview with the regional radio station, on the show “Word of the MP” (Member of Parliament).

Further, he said that this practice is in fact implemented, as the Association of Yasavey receives the propositions (bills) for approval, before they are adopted in the regional duma. Aleksandr Belugin is also a deputy in the Nenets AO regional duma, representing the Communist Party.

Belugin was further asked about the question of damages on the tundra land from heavy tracked vehicles, and he confirmed that Yasavey has been in a dialogue with the regional Office for Indigenous Peoples and the management of natural resources in order to develop some wording of a law, stating the need for reducing the violation of the tundra.

-          We have tried to develop a consensus on the matter that on grazing land, used by migrating reindeer herding brigades and uncovered by snow, one may not move out of designated roads with heavy tracked vehicles or other types of freight surface transportation, Belugin said in the radio show.

Yasavey is the official organization uniting the indigenous Nenets people inhabiting the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The organization has coordinated projects aiming at improving the conditions for the Nenets peoples, especially those inhabiting the tundra areas. According to Irina Khanzerova, a Nenets journalist, only 10 % of the region’s Nenets inhabitants live within the city of Naryan-Mar.

Projects, such as Kaninsky Krasny Chum, has been implemented earlier, securing health care and a cultural employee within the migrating reindeer herding brigades moving between the coast and the inland. This project was financed by the Nenets regional administration in 2008, but is has not been repeated since. Yasavey, however, is working continually to develop the project into also including other areas of the district, such as the Bolzhemelskaya tundra – the Great tundra east of Naryan-Mar. This is all according to the board of Yasavey.