Russia's Indigenous Share Struggle with Paiute Shoshone: Battling Fake Green

 

Siberian Times reported, "Shocking pictures reveal colour of Daldykan River with locals claiming the waste from a nickel plant is to blame. The Polar Division of Norilsk Nickel does not confirm a leak of emergency discharge of industrial waste into the Daldykan River which could have affected its state.' Picture: Vkontakte

Russia's Arctic Indigenous Share Common Struggle with Paiute Shoshone in Nevada: Battling the Fake Green Monster

Brenda Norrell, Censored News, July 28, 2023

Indigenous in Russia's Arctic share a common struggle with Paiute Shoshone in Nevada. They have been fighting the green hype proclaiming disastrous mining as the new green. In Nevada, Paiute Shoshone are battling Lithium Americas, now digging into the Paiute Massacre Site for lithium.

In Russia's far north some of the world's worst environmental disasters have occurred from nickel mining, chasing the dollars for metals for electric car batteries.

We seldom hear about this in the U.S. The testimony at the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Geneva, in July, opened a door, sharing the common struggles, and how corporations target remote Indigenous lands for destructive mining, and then destroy the land and water, while politicians promote it all, and could care less about carcinogens in the rivers and the desecration of sacred places.

Indigenous Peoples Rights International

"Russia: Indigenous peoples call on Tesla not to source from Nornickel due to harm to their territories and livelihoods Representatives of Indigenous peoples, environmental and human rights organizations have been raising serious concerns about Russian mining company Nornickel’s damage to the territories and livelihoods of Indigenous peoples in the Arctic for many years.

"This includes the rupture of a diesel storage tank at one of the company’s natural gas power plants in May 2020, which flooded local waterways with an estimated 23,000 tons of diesel oil. Nickel is a key ingredient of electric car batteries, allowing them to store energy more cheaply."

"In August 2020, the  Aborigen Forum, a coalition of organizations, activists, and community leaders that represent and protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the North, Siberia, and the Far East of the Russian Federation released a letter calling on Tesla to not buy nickel, copper, and other products from Nornickel until the company complies with its human rights responsibilities - including compensating Indigenous communities for the damages done to their traditional way of life and revising its policies for engaging with Indigenous peoples."

"The Resource Centre contacted Nornickel and Tesla to respond to this call to respect Indigenous peoples rights; neither company responded. Nornickel previously responded to requests from the Resource Centre regarding allegations of Indigenous rights violations and environmental harm; responses are available here and here."

"In August 2021, a prominent Sámi leader who was one of the organizers of the campaign calling for Tesla not to purchase products from Nornickel, Andrey Danilov - was detained for hours by the police. He said his detention was part of ongoing official pressure on him as payback for his campaigning against mining on Sámi lands; “Their main goal is to either push me to flee abroad or to force me to shut up,” Danilov shared with journalists in January 2022."

"The arrest occurred after a previous victory won by Danilov in the Constitutional Court which ruled that unlicensed hunting is the birthright of any Indigenous person as part of their traditional way of life."

Indigenous Rights to Hunt and Fish

Victoria Kish, in the International Affairs Forum, describes how the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was created for the purpose of ensuring free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous Peoples before resources are used.

"One example of a corporation that commits various human rights abuses against indigenous peoples and their land is Nornickel, which is a Russian nickel mining company that is responsible for multiple environmental disasters in the Arctic, a lot of which affect indigenous land. For example, in May 2020, over 20,000 tons of diesel leaked into the Ambarnaya River from a Nornickel powerplant; the river turned red from the amount of pollution in it.

"This is a problem for indigenous communities because a lot of the arctic indigenous tribes that live along this river use it to hunt and fish for their food to survive. Knowing the damage that affected these communities because of the oil spill, Nornickel still failed to give compensation to the indigenous communities impacted and they also failed to acknowledge FPIC. This is a violation of the UNDRIP, yet Nornickel continues to operate and extract nickel without consequences for its actions against indigenous communities."