Journalists in Mordovia, a Finno-Ugric administrative unit of the Russian Federation, addressed President Vladimir Putin with an open letter asking to stop persecution of the fortnightly Erzyan Mastor. The last Erzya language newspaper in private, not government, ownership is accused by the local Office of Public Prosecutor of disseminating extremist propaganda.
This is not the case, however. Published since 1994 by the Foundation to Protect the Erzyan Language, the newspaper aims to support the language and identity of the nearly one million strong Finno-Ugric people fading under the pressure of government-sponsored russification.
The original Russian text of the open letter can be found at:
http://ingria.info/?lenta&news... http://erzianj-jurnal.livejour... VALERI KALABUGIN Member of the Board, Estonian Institute for Human Rights
Tallinn, Estonia
