Over the Border to Asylum in Norway: Russian Sami Andrei Danilov's story

 

Andrei Danilov  Photo: Thomas Nilsen

The always interesting Barents Observer, which covers politics and life in the European Arctic, has this story today on Andrei Danilov. Born in Lovozero, the main  Sámi settlement in Russia's Kola Peninsula, Danilov fled Russia for Norway in February, 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. He is currently seeking asylum in order to stay in Norway. 

 For the past thirty years, the Russian Sámi have been part of the Sámi Council representing all Sámi in the four countries, Russia, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Now that cooperation has been suspended, in part due to the fact that some of Sámi on the Russian side are actively supporting Putin's actions. 

I found this development distressing to read about, given how harshly the Sámi themselves have been treated by the Russian state, and how meaningful it's been for the Sámi in every part of Sápmi to be able to connect and work together.

Several other cross-border long-term cooperations are also being suspended in the face of the continuing war in Ukraine, as reported by High North News. They include The Norwegian Barents Secretariat and  Barents Press International, "a network for journalists and editors in the Barents region in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. The network was founded after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union at the start of the 1990s."