ABSTRACT
By the end of the second decade of the 21st century, Russian Indigenous communities have found themselves outcast in their own lands. Inhabiting the country’s richest area, the Arctic, they are confronted with the unmatched severity of extractive industries’ activities, facilitated by a government policy that emphasizes the Arctic as a resource treasure house. This chapter examines the topic of Indigenous self-determination as a complexity of pathways to Russia’s Indigenous disempowerment. We show how the emphasis on supporting extractive industrial development that feeds the Russian budget continuously weakens the modest Indigenous peoples’ rights protection that was introduced in the immediate aftermath of the Soviet Union. Our research findings show that instead of devising a comprehensive policy designed to address Indigenous accommodation, the Russian state is far more inclined to remove the “last obstacle” standing in the way of its “Arctic dream”, according to which the world’s largest country’s budget as well as its energy and military security is guaranteed by the Arctic.
