War shuts Finnish researchers out of Russia, reshaping their work

Finnish researchers are finding new ways to study Russia as the war in Ukraine and security risks prevent them from travelling there, Yle reports. Some meet research participants in other countries, while others rely on satellite images and online sources.

Florian Stammler, a professor of Arctic anthropology at the University of Lapland’s Arctic Centre, has met Siberian reindeer herders in Turkey and China since Russia expanded its war in Ukraine in 2022. Turkey was chosen because flights from Moscow are cheap and Russians often holiday there, he said. Russians do not need visas to visit either Turkey or China.

In China, researchers met Indigenous people living in the country’s north alongside Indigenous people from Russia. The meetings took place in 2023 in countries Russia considers friendly. Stammler said the participants could not be invited to Finland, which Russia considers unfriendly.

Stammler has studied Indigenous communities in Siberia for years, including how people milk reindeer and use reindeer milk. Even research on a subject as apolitical as reindeer milking is no longer possible in Russia, he said.

Official cooperation between universities was cut off after Russia expanded its war in 2022, and Finnish researchers cannot travel to Russia on work trips. Many also choose not to go privately because of security concerns, their work or their political views.

Researchers at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs are currently unable to travel to Russia. Senior researcher Jussi Lassila said he would not want to support the policies of a country at war and President Vladimir Putin by going there, even if travel were possible.

Lassila said Russia often regards Western researchers as unfriendly and their work as illegal. Writing about the war or the military, including in social media, can lead to years in prison in Russia, he said. Russians who communicate with Western researchers may also face serious consequences.

Stammler said he carefully considers how meetings could affect the safety of his contacts when they return to Russia. The researchers do not draw attention to the meetings on social media, he said. Lassila added that Finnish researchers visiting Russia could be used as “useful idiots” in Russian propaganda if they appeared in the country’s media.

Mirkka Ollila, 31, is working on a doctoral thesis at the University of Helsinki’s Aleksanteri Institute. She is studying a planned lithium mine on the Kola Peninsula, in a part of Russia where Sámi people live, and the discussion surrounding the project.

Ollila uses satellite images, Russian media available online and social media. She said not being able to visit means she misses the local atmosphere and conditions, taking away a significant part of the research. Last year, she drove through the Sámi homeland to the Russian border to see how close the planned mine was. The project is about 300 kilometres from Finland’s border.

Lassila said online sources and social media remain extensive resources for researchers despite efforts to restrict access. He pointed to Telegram as an important source of independent views and public sentiment.

Ollila is weighing whether she can continue as a Russia researcher without being able to go there. Stammler does not expect research cooperation with Russia to resume in the coming years. Younger researchers, meanwhile, will have to start getting to know Russia and its people almost from scratch, Lassila said.