Regular operation of the 572 km long railroad to its terminal point – the Karskaya station – was launched in February 15. The line connects major regional installations like the Bovanenkovo gas field with national key infrastructure.

The Obskaya-Bovanenkovo railway line will enable Gazprom to easily ship huge quantities of goods and construction materials to its field development sites in Yamal.

“The opening of this railway will facilitate all-year-round, quick, cost efficient and not-weather-dependent transport of goods and personnel to the fields in Yamal under the harsh Arctic conditions, a press release from Gazprom reads.

Unline other Russian railway lines, the Obskaya-Bovanenkovo line is owned by Gazprom. As previously reported, the Russian Railways have been invited to take over the line, but has shown little interest.

In addition to railway and field development in Yamal, Gazprom is also investing in the laying of the Bovanenkovo-Ukhta gas pipeline.

Source: Gazprom

The prospect of Russia exporting halal reindeer meat products to the desert kingdom first came up last month when the governor of Russia’s Arctic Yamal Nenets region, where most of Russia’s gas is produced, was in Qatar for investment talks.

“We told the Qatari leadership that we don’t only have oil and gas. We also have reindeer. And then a Sheikh asked, ‘Is reindeer halal? Can Muslims eat it?’ It turns out they can,” Yamal’s governor Dmitry Kobylkin told Reuters in an interview.

“They were so surprised to learn there exists another kind of meat that they haven’t tried and that it can be halal. Gold mining is interesting for them, gas, infrastructure, and now investment in halal reindeer meat processing,” Kobylkin said.

Upon return to Yamal, home to 700,000 reindeer and 500,000 people, Kobylkin had the state-owned Yamal Reindeer Company arrange for ritual Islamic slaughter and the trial production of 1,000 cans of halal reindeer meat.

This week Qatari officials will get their first taste of reindeer at a Russia-Qatar investment forum in Doha where Kobylkin’s deputy will present the Reindeer Co.’s business plan to expand into halal meat production and product exports.

A spokeswoman for the state-owned Qatar Investment Authority said she could not comment on its investment interests.

“Our plan is to build a separate slaughter house, canning and sausage factory. We hope for a joint venture with Qatar,” said Sergei Uramayev, a representative of the Reindeer Co.

Uramayev also said that after consulting with the Imam of the Salekhard Mosque in Yamal’s capital, the firm decided the project would also market halal canned reindeer within Russia.

“There is a huge demand among Russia’s Muslim community for halal products. Until two-three years ago, you didn’t see any halal stores. Now they’re opening everywhere,” Salekhard Mosque Imam Abdullah Hazrat said.

Reindeer herding and meat production has been Yamal’s No. 3 industry after oil and gas — Yamal produces 85 percent of Russia’s gas and 15 percent of its oil — ever since the Yamal Reindeer Co. received EU certification to export in 2006.

(Source: Writing by Jessica Bachman; Editing by Paul Casciato)

The award-winning documentary about reindeer herders in the Polar Urals beat 80 films from 27 other countries.

“Nyarma” by Edgar Bartenev focuses on the Nenets people, their customs, family relations, lifestyle, as well as the unique tradition of reindeer herding.

The main character in the documentary is a young Nenets guy who, following the tragic death of his father, becomes the owner of a large herd of 3000 reindeer.

Gosha has to take responsibility not only for his family but for the entire neighborhood – the Polar Ural, according to tradition.

Capturing the spellbound beauty of the landscape, the documentary gives a deep insight into the nature of the indigenous people of the North, moving herds of reindeer.

The St Petersburg-based filmmaker, whose famous teacher was maverick director Alexey German, was quoted as saying that his first trip to the North was when he worked as a doctor in an intensive care unit. He was blown away by the Nenets’ permanent state of enthusiasm and their attitude towards each other, their deer and dogs.

“Relations between the people are amazing. I’ve never seen a husband screaming at his wife or offending his children. The Nenets never beat animals,” Bartenev was quoted as saying.

Source: RT.com

Watch a trailer here: http://www.eastsilver.net/en/east-silver/completed-films/-nyarma-3484/?yearactivity=noac&country=&genere=&director=&producer=&coproducer=&length=&malpha=&fulltext=nyarma&submitButton=Filter

Nenets 'chum' from Yamal, Pic: Francis Latreille

A ‘chum’, the traditional though still in use every day dwelling of the reindeer herding Nenets on the Yamal Peninsula,  will be making a guest appearance at one Russia’s busiest airport: Moscow’s Sheremetyevo.

This marks the kick off of a series of events in the nations capital celebrating the life and culture of the worlds greatestest region of reindeer husbandry, the Yamal Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The exhibit will present items of everyday life, patterns of national art, art-works of local painters, video displays and the work of renowned arctic photographer Brian Alexander.

Other events include a literature soiree “Yamal and literature” on the 26th of November in the museum of Lev Tolstoy. Poets and novelists from Yamal and living in Moscow, whose theme of creative work is the North, will gather here. This will be followed by an International festival of documentary films entitled “The Arctic” on the 27th of November. It was organized by the government of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug with the financial support of “Gazprom-bank”. 60 films from 6 countries from around the world will participate in it.

An exhibition and presentation of humanitarian and scientific-industrial potential of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug will take place on the 2nd-3rd of December in the Public Chamber of Russian Federation.

(Video Bruce Forbes) The Arctic Centre of Finland is Finland’s national arctic research centre. Researchers at the Arctic Centre have been carrying out research on the Yamal Peninsula with Nenets reindeer herders for many years primarily under the theme of Global Change and Land use change. Videos and Photos from this years field work on Yamal, led by Dr. Bruce Forbes can be see here

This will signal the first time that Yamal reindeer meat is imported to a country that already has a domestic reindeer meat industry.

Lapin Liha stated to the media that this was necessary as there was simply not enough reindeer meat supply in the market in Finland to meet their production goals of 40,000 reindeer per year. Currently they are processing around 24000 per year, 3000 of which come from Sweden.

Lapin Liha plan to import 200-250,000 kilos per year, all of which will come from the EU certified slaughterhouse in Yar-Sale, which was constructed by the Finnish company Kometos Oy.

Read the news release here on the Lapin Liha site.

The Yamal-Nenets area, “Russia’s outpost in the Arctic,” became the first of Russian regions to present itself at the international exhibition World Expo 2010 that opened in Shanghai on Saturday.

The deputy governor, Andrei Kugayevsky, responsible for his area’s agroindustrial sector, told RIA Novosti that China showed interest in receiving preserved reindeer blood.

“China is likely to be the main consumer of preserved reindeer blood as they actively use biostimulants it contains,” he also said.

Kugayevsky said blood preservation makes it possible to produce various substances used in pharmacology.

The 2010 World Expo fair is to run from May 1 to October 31. Some 70 million visitors are expected to attend the event.

PUDANA – LAST OF THE LINE is a story of change, upbringing and deprivation of identity. The film takes place in the Yamal Peninsula during Soviet times and is based on a true story set in Director Anastasia Lapsui’s childhood surroundings. A little Nenets girl Neko is taken against her will from her home chum (teepee) to a boarding school in a remote Russian village. Forced to adapt to a foreign culture and new customs, Neko rebels against Sovietisation and gets bullied by her schoolmates and picked on by her teachers. After several conflicts Neko decides to flee together with her Nenets school mate hoping to get back to her reindeer herding family on the tundra. However, the children’s flight in  is short-lived and the return to the boarding school and their new Russian life is inevitable.

The story is told as old Neko’s, or now Nadja’s, memory. Now, after long and full life, she recalls the moment that ended her childhood and started her life as a part of the other society. But something important has changed for good; Neko, the last of her family, has grown away from her original roots and lost her skill to sustain the ancient traditions of her family.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat