Olenyar from Siberia, one of the ethnic minorities sent by Vladimir Putin to fight in Ukraine, explains why he joined the Russian army: the economic consequences of the war pushed him to the brink of starvation.

The interview, given by a man of ethnic Nenets – an indigenous people living in northeastern Europe and northwestern Siberia – was transcribed and translated by military analyst and independent researcher Chris Owen, who published it on his website. Twitter.

Owen says the story of “Alexander,” the pseudonym used by Russian investigative journalists who interviewed him, is both fascinating and instructive about the hardships faced by indigenous Russians sent to die head-on in Vladimir Putin’s war against of Ukraine on February 24. .

The Nenets number about 45,000 and live near the Arctic Ocean. Like many other indigenous peoples living in Russia, they suffered greatly from Moscow’s colonial policy.

Reindeer hunters become fishermen

Oleksandr described how climate change and environmental degradation have made the traditional activities of the Nenets – reindeer herding and fishing – economically unsustainable.

“8 years ago, we had a herd of 400 deer, my family and I moved from here to there, lived in a tent. Then it rained in the winter – it had never happened before. Reindeer died due to ice. Some of us have been left without reindeer,” he says, probably referring to the freezing of rainwater due to the rapid change in temperature.

This leads to the fact that the lichens that reindeer feed on are covered with a thick and impenetrable layer of ice, which leads to the death of animals from starvation.

Alexander said he gave his brother the 50 surviving deer and moved to a small town where he and his wife sold the fish they caught. But their business has been severely affected by government-imposed maximum fishing quotas, which are lower for indigenous people than for Russian fishermen.

For this reason, indigenous people often have to resort to poaching to ensure their daily existence. And Russian authorities encourage indigenous people to report each other, and ethnic minorities are often victims of physical violence by state inspectors.

“The officials tell us: ‘we can help you, just tell us who is fishing here,'” reports the man.

Ethnic minorities in Russia are victims of Moscow’s policies

Then Alexander’s business was affected by the disappearance of fish. “This year there were no fish in the lake and on the Ob, we fish all day and catch two or three pieces. This is already unbearable,” he says.

“Maybe they poisoned them or we caught them all. Last year we had fish, but this year people are in a panic, they don’t know what to do. I heard that there are families who have already starved,” the man said.

In addition to climate change, the development of the Yamal region for the extraction of oil, natural gas and minerals has led to the degradation of large areas of the environment. The Nenets have the misfortune of living above huge deposits of oil and natural gas that have been developed since the 1990s.

Only ethnic Russians work in industry, so the Nenets have very little use for the natural wealth beneath their feet.

And reindeer husbandry is also in crisis, the price of the products obtained from it has been collapsing in recent years. “We have nowhere to sell them, no one buys them, that’s why the prices are so low. People don’t know how to live,” Oleksandr says.

Reindeer antlers are in demand for use in traditional medicine in Asia, especially by the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans. But their sale is only partially legal due to regulations and bureaucratic obstacles.

The black market, however, is worth 5 billion rubles a year, but it means breeders are dependent on Chinese traders, who often cheat locals, knowing they will not be able to report the situation to the Russian authorities.

Nenets are a minority in all regions of their origin, where ethnic Russians have become the predominant population. Nenets are at the bottom of the local ethnic hierarchy and face systematic discrimination. In addition, Russification forced many people to forget their language and lose their culture.

“Nenets are not hired, I don’t know why. People from abroad work in our schools. Our people graduate from universities, but are rejected everywhere and start wasting their time on drunkenness. Basically, people drink to death or to prison,” says the man.

Poor Russians go into debt to survive

Poverty is widespread among native Russians, and low wages have not kept pace with prices, which had already skyrocketed even before President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to attack Ukraine.

“The wages are very low, and the prices are such that it is impossible to live on 30,000 rubles ($488). My salary is 23,000 ($374) and utilities for a two-room apartment are 9,000 ($146) per month… Only pensioners can survive on the pension,” Oleksandr explains.

Then he talked about another problem that poor Russians face – the accumulation of debts.

“People don’t have enough money to live on, they have accumulated so much debt that they can’t get out. Credit after credit and credit again. I have personal debts of a million or so rubles, which I gradually accumulated,” he says.

Microcredit companies, which are not regulated by the Russian authorities, demand huge rates of up to 1% per day. Millions of impoverished Russians like Alexander turned to such loans.

Poorer Russians can’t get bank credit, so they have to rely on payday loans from dubious microfinance companies that often have ties to organized crime and resort to brutal debt collectors.

Collectors often take fake Chechen names to make them more feared, and intimidate debtors’ family members, friends, and even employers if they cannot be “persuaded” to pay.

The choice after the start of the war: either starve or join the army

The consequences of the war in Ukraine caused new financial problems for Russians. If Muscovites and residents of large Russian cities were left without McDonald’s, Starbucks, IKEA and other large Western companies that left Russia, then Russians in poor regions suffered much more.

Oleksandr gives an example of the increase in food prices:

“Until February, food prices were normal, but because of the war they increased: bread costs 41 rubles, and I personally now buy it for 100 rubles. Earlier, a can of condensed milk cost 100-120 rubles, now it costs 250.”

He says that now the choice is “starve or what.” In the end, I had to take such a risky step and sign a military contract – there was no other way out.”

“It was either famine or this,” he repeated, adding that the situation “has become unbearable, people must go to fight.”

20 years after his conscription in Russia, Alexander signed a professional contract that earns him 270,000 rubles a month, which should theoretically help him pay off his debts in a few months if he survives the war.

“Debts will grow constantly, working for 20-30 thousand rubles is simply impossible to get out of this situation. So now at least there is hope of escape. But if you are unlucky, of course you can die,” says Oleksandr.

He gave an interview to the journalists of “Cherty” (“Porig”), an investigative site recently created by independent Russian journalists.

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