Small-numbered indigenous peoples of the North in the Murmansk Region will now receive subsidies from the regional budget. Applications for subsidies can be filed until March 20, the regional government's committee on relations with public organizations and youth affairs reported on its web page.

Subsidies are meant to support and develop the traditional economy and self-sustainment of the indigenous peoples of the North — the Saami, who inhabit their native areas and maintain their traditional way of life and engage in traditional occupations.

In 2009-2015, as many as 24 indigenous communities received subsidies for material and technical supplies under the Economic and Social Development of the Small-Numbered Indigenous Peoples of the North Program in the Murmansk Region. Thanks to financial support from the federal and local budgets, they were able to purchase snow vehicles, quadricycles, boats, boat engines, fishing equipment, mobile homes for reindeer-breeding brigades, household equipment and reindeer.