Officials identified the suspect as a private serving in a remote area along Russia’s border with China, and blamed a “nervous breakdown.”

We are glad to offer our readers complete text of interview with  Syres’ Boliayen’, Inyazor (chief elder) of Erzya people, undertaken by Erzyan Mastor newspaper. The brief variant of conversation can be read in issue №552 (August 28, 2019).

Over the last few months an intense debate has taken place between two prominent Tatar historians, Damir Iskhakov and Alfrid Bustanov, with the former focusing on the centrality of the territory of Tatarstan for maintaining the Tatar nation and the latter arguing that Tatars must move beyond that Soviet framework and become “a post nation.”

At the first session of the State Assembly of the Republic of Mari El, Anatoly Smirnov, who did not gain the winning number of votes on the party list of “United Russia”, was apparently uncontested elected by a majority of the deputies from the ruling party. It was reported by the site Mari Uver, citing the newspaper «Our Version – Mari El, Chuvashia».

Kersti Kaljulaid, the Estonian president, invited her Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to attend the World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples in June 2020.

Twins seeking refugee status are desperate to avoid the fate of their friend, who tells his story of time spent in a re-education camp in China for the first time.

During his visit to Tallinn Syres’ Boliayen’, Inyazor of Erzya people, honoured fighters for freedom and independence of Estonia.

On October 11, Syres’ Boliayen’,  chief elder (Inyazor) of Erzyan people,  started his visit to Estonia.

The European Language Equality Network (ELEN), the NGO that works for the protection and promotion of European lesser-used languages, has written to the leader of the Udmurt Republic, Alexei Prasolov, and politicians in the Russian Federation, concerning the death of Udmurt scholar Dr. Albert Razin, and to call on the government for new measures to protect and promote Udmurt, as well as all indigenous languages in Russia. Dr. Razin died after burning himself to death after a protest last month in support of the Udmurt language.

In the city of Turku, Erzya activists brought flowers and commemorative postcards to the building of the Russian consulate, the IdelReal website reports.

he self-immolation of Albert Razin on September 10 intended to attract attention to the problems of the Udmurt language has certainly done that, but it has also drawn enormous attention to the man himself. One of the most moving is a commentary of Galina Sakharevich on Moscow’s Takiye dela portal.

On the day last month that hundreds paid their last respects to Albert Razin, the 79-year-old activist who burned himself to death in support of his native Udmurt language, the Moscow newspaper Izvestia published an op-ed column by a prominent scholar and Kremlin adviser on minority issues.

Syres’ Boliayen’, Inyazor (chief elder) of Erzya people, appealed to government of Republic of Mordovia with a requirement to establish an Erzyan gymnasium in Saransk. He is convinced that Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia on the verge of total extinction because of Moscow’s aggressive assimilation policy.

The police investigators were insistent and very pointed in their questions, according to Yulia Razina: Why did her husband douse himself with gasoline and set himself on fire in this central Russian city’s main square?

Indigenous peoples of Russian Federation, and with them Erzya people, continue to comprehend the act of Udmurt scientist Alberta Razin, namely self-immolation as a form of resistance to aggressive assimilation policy.