Nearly twenty reindeer cross the E6 road in northeastern Norway. They slip nonchalantly between Mercedes and Citroën SUVs. Here, reindeer run the streets. Sometimes at their own risk. Talk to Sami reindeer herder Egil Kalliainen.
A year ago, around forty of his hairy-snouted deer took advantage of a breach in a fence, then the freezing of the Pasvik River, to go and graze peacefully in Vladimir Putin’s country. It was enough to provoke a diplomatic incident between Oslo and Moscow, at loggerheads since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, almost two years ago.
Almost all of the reindeer turned back two months later, returning to the Kingdom of Norway. But the damage was done, according to the Russian authorities.
Last August, they demanded a sum of 340 million rubles — the equivalent of some CA$6 million at the time — from the Norwegian authorities for the “significant damage” that the mammals with flattened antlers had apparently caused during their unauthorized stay in Murmansk Oblast.
“The ground cover, which takes the form of lichens and shrubs, has been eaten away. There was also some trampling [des rennes] with their hooves, which led to a degradation of the vegetation cover in the reserve. This contributes to increased soil erosion. In other words, we are losing an element of the ecosystem that will take years to restore,” lamented the director of the Pasvik State Nature Reserve in Russia, Natalia Polikarpova, in an exchange with the norwegian newspaper The Barents Observer.
For his part, Egil Kalliainen received instructions from the Norwegian Food Inspection Agency to slaughter the 40 reindeer returning from Russia. Moscow’s propaganda machine then went into overdrive.
On the Telegram messaging platform, the spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, cried “sacrilege”, before emphasizing in broad strokes that “reindeer herding is at the heart of Sami culture”.
TRUE. The Sámi have been alongside reindeer for several thousand years, first through hunting, then through domestication and breeding, confirms Christina Mathisen behind the reception desk of the Skolt Sámi museum in Neiden, not far from the Finnish borders. (west) and Russian (south and east).
More than 3,000 people engage in transhumance reindeer herding. The majority of them are in Finnmark, beyond the Arctic Circle, like Egil Kalliainen, who sells more than 30 tonnes of reindeer meat per year.
To offend a reindeer is to bring misfortune to the entire nomadic community. Under no circumstances should such a thing be done. These spirits do not forgive…
“To offend a reindeer is to bring misfortune to the entire nomadic community. Under no circumstances should such a thing be done,” added Maria Zakharova on her Telegram account, which is followed by more than 475,000 people. “These spirits are not forgiving…” she warned.
A Scandinavian “zoocide”, according to Russia
In the eyes of the Russian official, the Scandinavian “neoliberals” mock not only the “feelings” and “mythology” of the Sami, but also “apparently European humanism”.
Maria Zakharova cites as proof the execution of the walrus Freya in Oslo (summer 2022) and the giraffe Marius in Copenhagen (winter 2014), which was killed “with a construction gun in front of stunned children” before its carcass was “cut up, always in the presence of young children, and given to the lions,” said the director of the information and press department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The chihuahua Raya, who illegally entered Norwegian territory, would have suffered the same fate (summer 2020) had it not been for the intervention of martial arts-loving actor Jean-Claude Van Damme, added Maria Zakharova.
For now, the Norwegians are working to keep the Norwegian reindeer in Norway… and to face climate change with them. Moreover, Egil Kalliainen has reinforced here and there the fence along the border separating Norway and Russia for fear that other of his 2,500 animals will leave the fields and go to graze on Russian grass.