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Nornickel to sponsor printing of books, newspapers in Taimyr peoples’ languages

The company will also finance building of a primary healthcare facility in Taimyr’s remote Volochanka village

MOSCOW, September 10. /TASS/. The Norilsk Nickel Company (Nornickel) will pay for publication of books and support of newspapers, as well as for work on the methods to teach languages of the North’s low-numbered indigenous peoples, living on the Taimyr Peninsula. The company signed a new agreement, which amends an earlier deal to support the low-numbered indigenous peoples, Nornickel said on Thursday.

In September, 2020, the Associations of the North’s Low-Numbered Indigenous Peoples and of Taimyr’s Low-Numbered Indigenous Peoples signed an agreement with Nornickel on support for the indigenous peoples in different areas. The agreement’s price was 2 billion rubles ($23.2 million). Later on, the company increased the investments by another 100 million rubles ($1.2 million).

"The changes to the agreement have been made following a request from the Association of Taimyr’s Low-Numbered Indigenous Peoples. <…> The parties have added a complex of events, related to Russia’s International Decade of Indigenous Peoples’ Languages, supported by the Federal Agency for Ethnic Affairs. In particular, we will publish a few linguistic and literature works, will support newspapers in the indigenous languages, will prepare methods materials for teaching the languages, and some other events," the company said, without quoting the costs.

Under the amendment, the company will finance building of a primary healthcare facility in Taimyr’s remote Volochanka village. Nornickel’s Vice President Andrei Grachev told reporters the document had been initiated by the Association of Taimyr’s Low-Numbered Indigenous Peoples. "The tasks as per the first agreement have been partially fulfilled," he said. "We have new tasks, which we discuss with representatives of the North’s low-numbered indigenous peoples, and due to those new tasks we had to amend the document."

The Association of Taimyr’s Low-Numbered Indigenous Peoples’ Chairman Grigory Dukayev said the agreement amendments had arisen from new suggestions, voiced by the peninsula’s residents. "We constantly monitor what the local families need, and jointly with the company we adjust accordingly certain items of our agreements," he said.