News

A gathering of reindeer herders, fishermen and hunters, which was to have taken place on 23 March in the village of Ruskinskaya in the Surgut district of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, and which has essentially become a national celebration of indigenous peoples, was cancelled.

Scientists are sounding the alarm: if no action is taken, the Taimyr Peninsula's wild reindeer population could disappear.

Three days of presidential elections in the Russian Federation are over. The people of the Finno-Ugric republics have once again backed Vladimir Putin, but this time he won a lower percentage of the vote than in the country as a whole - 87.33% in the Russian Federation.

Viktor Vorobyov, a deputy to the State Council of the Komi Republic and a representative of the Communist Party, submitted a draft law to the State Council's Legislative Committee to allow the use of the Komi language in parliament.

The Komi-Permyak Literary Language Day is celebrated on February 17 by decree of the Governor of Perm Krai since 2010. As has become customary, a number of events and activities are organised on the occasion to promote the Komi-Permyak language.

The second-instance court of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug refused to recognise a resident of Urai town and her children as representatives of the Mansi.

The Udmurt Republic has been celebrating World Pelmeni Day for the past ten years, as according to some, Udmurtia is the homeland of the pelmeni dumplings. This year's festival took place again from 5-10 February. In Udmurt, 'pelnyany' means 'ear bread', and in the city of Izhevsk, a monument of several metres in height has been erected to the dumplings.

On 23 January, the Mari director of the Mari National Theatre turned 70 years. A festival of his plays will begin in February in honour of the significant date.

Pyotr Tultayev, Chairman of the Finno-Ugric Association and Senator of the Council of the Russian Federation, met with the Head of the Republic Vladimir Uiba and the Chairman of the State Council of the Republic (Speaker) Sergey Usachov on 2 February.

In recent years, it has become increasingly noticeable that birthdays in the republics of the Russian Federation are inappropriate or inconvenient to celebrate.

The governor of the oblast, Andrei Chibis, congratulated the local Saami people on the occasion of the celebration and noted that the Saami will be given a great deal of support, with 53 million roubles earmarked for 2023.

At the end of last year, sad news came out of Udmurtia of the passing of the eminent Udmurt linguist and Finnougrist Valei Kelmakov (14 January 1942–28 December 2023).