Anatoliy Grigoriev, Chairman of the Karelian Congress, filed an action against Ministry for the  National Policy, Relations with Public and Religious Organizations, Mass Media and the publishing office “Periodica” claiming to ensure publication of the “Carelia” magazine in 2014 in Finnish and in amount of 10 editions and to compensate for moral damage in amount of 1 million rubles. Preliminary action proceedings took place in Petrozavodsk on December 26, according to A. Grigoriev, for the media center FINUGOR.

It is worth noting that the founders of the “Carelia” magazine, the only magazine in Russia in Finnish, issued by the Petrozavodsk publishing office “Periodica”, have decided to shorten the periodicity of the magazine publication from 10 editions a year to two, thus turning it, in fact, from a monthly magazine to a yearbook. Staffing of the magazine is also being lessened. The authorities’ outlook (Ministry for the National Policy and “Periodica” also belong to the founders) is that there is no money for the support of the magazine, which has such a small circulation because of the Finns decession and decrease of the Finnish-speaking population in Karelia.

According to A. Grigoriev, the preliminary hearing of the action “drew a great optimistic feeling in all defenders of the magazine. Thejudgeimpartiallyexaminedpositionsoftheparties. The applicant’s position is legal. My rights as a reader and consumer of the “Carelia” magazine are clearly violated. The respondent’s point is that there are few readers of the magazine, there are no money. But who can contradict that? ... There are even less readers of the newspapers in the Karelian and Veps language. But why should a great magazine be put down to the level of “young” immature literature, recently acquired written language?” – outraged the leader of the Karelian Congress.

The applicant himself showed on the hearing a weekly newspaper “Karelia. My Petrozavodsk”, published with the support of the authorities in circulation up to 70 thousand copies in Russian, and distributed to the population for free. In connection herewith A. Grigoriev inquires, why there are no funds for publication of the only magazine in Finnish.

The first judicial sitting is assigned for January 17, 2014. As specified by A. Grigoriev, it will be attended by Marat Tarasov, the national writer of Karelia, Russian by nationality, and a number of other defendants of the “Carelia” magazine.