Appeal of Finno-Ugric activists to Estonia

Russian assimilation: Finno-Ugric activists ask Estonian authorities to assess the activities of the Fenno-Ugria Foundation Activists of the Erzya, Moksha and Ingrians movements who have condemned the passive and silent position of the leadership of the Fenno-Ugria Foundation regarding Moscow’s targeted assimilation of the Finno-Ugric people in Russia and the persecution of national activists. On 10 July, a video message from activists of the Finno-Ugric people in Ukraine appeared online. They addressed the Speaker of the Riigikogu, Mr. Lauri Hussar, the Chairman of the Riigikogu Committee on Culture, Helio Pikhof, the Chairman of the Estonian Cultural Society, Margus Allikmaa, the heads of the Riigikogu factions, members of parliament, and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Estonia. The message was also a response to one of the discussion panels held by the Fenno-Ugria Foundation. Panelists — Foundation board member Tinu Seilenthal, ethnologist Aimar Wentsel and historian Jaak Prozes criticized Finno-Ugric activists from the League of Free Nations, accusing them of “marginality” and even “neo-Nazism.” Among the activists who publicly responded to the Foundation were: Inyazor of the Erzya people Syres Bolejan, representative of the Moksha diaspora in Ukraine, head of the Anatoly Ryabov Finno-Ugric Studies Centre (Nizhyn, Ukraine) Donisi Chovganon. Also a veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Anton Mulkahainen (Inkeri) and serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexander Butyaikin (Erzya). Syres Bolejan stated that the Finno-Ugrics have long had questions for the most powerful organization of the Finno-Ugric world. According to him, Fenno-Ugria has retreated from its mission – to stimulate the development of the culture of related people abroad. The Foundation has long “not been noticing” the destruction of the Finno-Ugric culture of Russia. It does nothing to protect the rights of related people in the Russian Federation. And on top of everything, now the words of the Foundation’s leadership have become virtually indistinguishable from the theses of Russian propaganda.