State-region relations involve negotiations over the power to (re)-constitute local spaces. While in federal states, power-sharing ostensibly gives regions a role over many space-making decisions, power asymmetries affect this role. Where centralization trends may erode regional agency, law can provide an important tool by which regions can assert influence. We examine a case where, in response to a proposed Russian federal law highly unpopular with a regional population, the region's government sought to ameliorate its potential impacts by using opportunities to co-produce the law, amending regional legislation, and strategically implementing other federal and regional laws to protect its territory.

An exploratory paper by an interdisciplinary team comprising two geographers and a political scientist investigates the role that aboriginal land claims legislation may play in efforts of Russia's ethnically based republics to increase their sovereignty vis-a-vis the Center. A specific focus is on the establishment of nomadic clan obshchinas in the Sakha Republic, and analysis of their spatial patterns within the republic. The paper then discusses how these units may serve as a possible hedge against secessionist sentiments in the south at the same time that they symbolize the republic government's commitment to preserving the rights of non-Sakha residents. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: H10, H70, Q20. 3 figures, 2 tables, 47 references.

Numerous Russian laws recognize rights of, and provide for benefits to, Indigenous peoples living within the Russian Federation. Yet in the past two decades, Indigenous persons have faced challenges in accessing these rights, having no way to prove that they are members of an Indigenous people. For almost two decades, Indigenous leaders have petitioned the Russian government to address this situation, and in January 2020, the Government of Russia passed a law to create a registry of Indigenous persons. Drawing on news coverage, scholarly discussion and interviews with Indigenous leaders and their allies in the Russian Federation, we describe the genesis of the problem, the interim measures various regions adopted to address the problem, and the unresolved challenges facing the implementation of this law. We recognize the registry as a problematic and contested legal site through which the state continues to delimit Indigeneity in ways that afford but also constrain rights.

Dans cet article, j’explore la façon dont les Évenks du Sud-Est de la Sibérie résistent à l’anéantissement de leurs terres. Celui-ci est causé tant par les actions directes de l’exploitation des ressources que par les effets indirects de l’éducation formelle ayant pour conséquence le déclin des savoirs environnementaux autochtones. Je suggère que les Évenks de cette région résistent par l’intermédiaire de la production et de la présentation d’éléments de paysage qui affirment et transmettent une identité évenke ancrée dans ce lieu. À travers la mise en scène d’un paysage au travers d’un « sentier écologique » et d’un arbre commémoratif, tant pour les jeunes Évenks que pour les visiteurs venus de loin, les aînés évenks s’approprient les discours juridiques qui combinent « indigénéité » et « traditionalité », manipulent la mémoire des passés autochtones (pré-soviétique et soviétique), transmettent les enseignements culturels ancrés dans le paysage et célèbrent la survie et le renouveau des Évenks face aux menaces continuelles de l’anéantissement des terres.