The Democratic Congress of the Peoples of the Russian Federation: “In Komi, there are ongoing persecutions of national activists.”

This was first reported by the Democratic Congress of the Peoples of the Russian Federation (DKNRF). This was confirmed by the Komi activist Nikolai Udoratin.

This was reported by journalist “Idel.Real” Ramadan Alpaut.

“Today I was summoned to the Prosecutor’s Office to give explanations about the activities of the Doryam Asnymys association (translated from the Komi language,“ Defend ourselves ”- editorial note). The chairman of the All-Russian Public Movement “Association of Finno-Ugric Peoples of the Russian Federation” (AFUN-RF), the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Mordovia P. N. Tultaev asked the Prosecutor’s Office to verify the activities of the Komi national movement (on November 1, 2016, Tultaev was elected mayor of the Saransk – a note from the editorial office), – Nikolai Udoratin was quoted in the DKNRF.

According to the activist, the prosecutor’s office refused his request to read Tultaev’s complaint.

“During the interrogation, I repeatedly requested to read the original complaint so I can correctly formulate the answers to protect myself from self-incrimination. The assistant prosecutor vehemently refused, saying it’s an internal document. He read out questions from the document, in my opinion, posing them subjectively. It’s likely that the assistant is not an expert on interethnic relations, and I couldn’t understand his interpretation and delivery of the questions. When I raised  these concerns, he still didn’t let me familiarize myself with the original complaint. Other activists of the organization were subjected to the same treatment”, said Udoratin’s to the DKNRF.

The social activist believes that this wave of interrogations is just another attempt to put pressure on the activists of “Doryam asnymys” (DA).

“My subpoena to the prosecutor’s office indicates that the investigation against DA has not yet been completed, as one of the telegram channels claimed. I believe that there is no violation of the law in the DA activities, and the pro-regime leader of the ANUF-RF initiated this investigation to intimidate us. He, however, did not succeed. The civil society has woken up and is not going back to asleep,” Udoratin concluded.

Based on the information published on the activist’s page, Udoratin was in the Prosecutor’s office on May 20.

Idel.Realies sent a request to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Komi Republic with a request to clarify their intent and position. By the time this material was published, no response was yet received from the Prosecutor’s Office.

Idel.Real spoke with another Komi activist Nikolai Bratenkov last evening. He explained why so many are against the abolishment of the Komi Republic by creating a single subject of the Russian Federation, composed of Komi, the Arkhangelsk region and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. He also noted that currently there is an ongoing Russification of the non-Russian ethnic groups of Russia.

The day earlier, the Bashkortostan Supreme Court recognized the national Bashkir organization Bashkort as an extremist group and banned its activities.

Peter Tultaev has been a vehement opponent of the opening of the Erzya gymnasium in Saransk. The campaign for the opening of the Erzya gymnasium in Saransk began in October 2019, when the Erzya Chief Elder (Inyazor) Syres Bolyan petitioned the Government of the Republic of Mordovia. However, the mayor of Saransk Petr Tultaev quickly rejected the idea of ​​opening a gymnasium, noting that “in the schools of Saransk, especially in areas with large Mordvinian population, the national languages ​​are already being taught. In kindergartens, they study the culture of the peoples of Mordovia and languages.” Dozens of Erzyan families sent a petition to the head of the Republic of Mordovia, Vladimir Volkov, with a proposal to create a gymnasium in Saransk, where “Erzyan language will be studied not just as language class, but a number of required classes would be taught in our mother Erzyan tongue too.”