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This article illustrates how the Yamal-Nenets, a group of reindeer pastoralists in West Siberia, perceive a series of recent natural disasters to be connected to one another through a conspiracy – i.e. caused by the agency of malevolent human forces which are beyond the pastoralists’ control. Recent fieldwork during the peak of the global Covid-19 epidemic served as a trigger for this observation. Their self-confidence in the robustness of their lifestyle and their embeddedness within their natural environment is so strong that Yamal-Nenets nomads believe only evil forces – not nature – can stop them from being mobile. Alongside Covid-19, they interpret the severe consequences of natural disasters, such as iced pastures, related reindeer starvation and the outbreak of anthrax as man-made attempts to reduce the number of people and animals in the tundra. The blame they place on humans for these disasters takes place in the context of hitherto unseen gas industry developments in the area. Such interpretations may become a general pattern for changing perceptions of the world by remote indigenous populations when deprived of their once customary shamanic dialogue with the spirits.

OBJECTIVE Isocitrate Dehydrogenase (IDH) mutation in glioma results in a multitude of biological differences with consequences for survival and therapy response. Therefore, IDH mutated (IDHmut) and wildtype (IDHwt) tumors are regarded as separate entities with the need for adjusted therapy like the combination of procarbazine, CCNU and vincristine (PCV). However, as vincristine has often severe side effects like neuropathy new effective therapy options are required. Therefore, we searched for combinations of FDA-approved drugs which effectively inhibit the growth of IDHmut cells in vitro. METHODS We tested different drug combinations of a drug library consisting of 146 FDA-approved drugs on two established IDHmut GSC lines. Based on a previous single agent drug screen, six drugs were selected (Idarubicin, Ixazumib, Ponatinib, Neratinib, Romidepsin) to be combined with all 146 drugs of the library. Cell viability was assessed by the CellTiterGlo 3D assay (Promega) in 96 well plates, while Caspase-Glo 3/7 3D assay was used to measure induction of apoptosis. RESULTS Out of 1460 drug combinations tested altogether 21 synergistic drug combinations could be identified and validated. The combination with the highest blood-brain-barrier permeability score was further investigated. Finally, drug-concentrations elucidating the highest synergistic effect on proliferation was further studied in a 8-point dose-response matrix followed by validation in additional four IDHmut GSC lines. CONCLUSION This work can lay the foundation for future improvements of the therapy of patients suffering from LGGs.

State-region relations involve negotiations over the power to (re)-constitute local spaces. While in federal states, power-sharing ostensibly gives regions a role over many space-making decisions, power asymmetries affect this role. Where centralization trends may erode regional agency, law can provide an important tool by which regions can assert influence. We examine a case where, in response to a proposed Russian federal law highly unpopular with a regional population, the region's government sought to ameliorate its potential impacts by using opportunities to co-produce the law, amending regional legislation, and strategically implementing other federal and regional laws to protect its territory.

Industry in the twenty-first century advances to ever-remoter regions, seen as ‘periphery’ from the point of view of headquarters and capital cities, while for local people these areas are the core of their world. This article investigates the encounter between communities, regulatory authorities and industry in the Russian Arctic. Using cases from Sakha (Yakutiya), we analyse how communities organise for coexistence of traditional livelihoods with big industrial projects in what we call state-led resource development. Our analysis shows the surprising room for agency that development agendas in a centralised state nonetheless leave for local people so far.

For the past three decades, risk has occupied center stage in the energy discourse. Systemic risks have proven particularly challenging for government energy planners and corporate executives, as they are characterized by their complexity, uncertainty, ambiguity, and ability to causing ripple effects throughout economic, social, and political structures. In this article we analyze two approaches to governing systemic risks arising out of energy megaprojects, one mandated under the Russian legal and regulatory regime and one employed by the largely indigenous hunters, fishermen, and reindeer herders residing in the Sakha Republic. Our study focuses on the 4000-km-long natural gas transmission system “Power of Siberia” to be constructed in the sub-Arctic part of the region. We employ a complimentary and corroborative analysis of legal texts, fieldwork observations, semi-structured interviews, and transcripts of official meetings. We establish that the approach to risk taken by the people who occupy the land that the Power of Siberia traverses could provide a useful insight for handling systemic risks in connection with pipeline transportation systems. We also determine that the current Russian legal and regulatory regime fails to provide an adequate basis for governing such risks. We conclude the article by identifying four pathways for integrating valuable elements of the indigenous approach into the current legal and regulatory framework.

This contribution analyses relations between people and resources according to two principal logics which we identified during fieldwork in the Russian Arctic and sub-Arctic: the utilitarian logic standing for the idea that humans own, control and exploit the land, and the partnership logic standing for humans living as part of the land in a reciprocal relationship. We investigate the encounter of these two in the Russian industrialised North. In all cases we see people agree that the utilitarian logic prevails. The partnership logic can exist safely only in a narrowly circumscribed niche. State law governs this niche, based on the utilitarian assumption that resources have to be useful for human society. Drawing on data from Kamchatka and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, we identify three scenarios of the encounter between those two logics in people- resource relations: confrontation, coexistence and co-ignorance. We analyse under which conditions this encounter assumes which form. We conclude that a partnership approach to land and resources can only survive as a marginal island in a world dominated by an extractivist mindset, but that indigenous people can preserve a niche for their partnership approach if they internalise the utilitarian logic, acknowledge its dominance and learn to play the extractivist game.

Tundra ecosystems are vulnerable to hydrocarbon development, in part because small-scale, low-intensity disturbances can affect vegetation, permafrost soils, and wildlife out of proportion to their spatial extent. Scaling up to include human residents, tightly integrated arctic social-ecological systems (SESs) are believed similarly susceptible to industrial impacts and climate change. In contrast to northern Alaska and Canada, most terrestrial and aquatic components of West Siberian oil and gas fields are seasonally exploited by migratory herders, hunters, fishers, and domesticated reindeer ( Rangifer tarandus L.). Despite anthropogenic fragmentation and transformation of a large proportion of the environment, recent socioeconomic upheaval, and pronounced climate warming, we find the Yamal-Nenets SES highly resilient according to a few key measures. We detail the remarkable extent to which the system has successfully reorganized in response to recent shocks and evaluate the limits of the system's capacity to respond. Our analytical approach combines quantitative methods with participant observation to understand the overall effects of rapid land use and climate change at the level of the entire Yamal system, detect thresholds crossed using surrogates, and identify potential traps. Institutional constraints and drivers were as important as the documented ecological changes. Particularly crucial to success is the unfettered movement of people and animals in space and time, which allows them to alternately avoid or exploit a wide range of natural and anthropogenic habitats. However, expansion of infrastructure, concomitant terrestrial and freshwater ecosystem degradation, climate change, and a massive influx of workers underway present a looming threat to future resilience.

This article analyses the development of relations between indigenous communities, oil companies and the state in Russia's Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO). Using first hand information from anthropological fieldwork and one co-author's own involvement in regional politics, we analyse efforts to establish stakeholder dialogue. We show that ‘collective agency’ is crucial to prepare the ground for trustful relations, whereas high personnel turnover within interest groups jeopardises initially promising initiatives. Lessons from this experience have relevance for similar analyses throughout Russia in those cases where consistent federal and regional legislation is not likely to be in place in the near future.

This introduction provides an overview of academic re- search and current practice relating to stakeholder dialogue around oil and gas development in the Russian North, Siberia and the Russian Far East. We discuss the two main strands of analysis in this special issue: (a) regulation and impact assessment; and (b) relationship- building in practice, with a particular focus on indigenous commu- nities. We argue that an effective regulatory framework, meaningful dialogue, and imaginative organization of stakeholder relations are required to minimize negative impacts and maximize benefits from oil and gas projects. Self-interest, mistrust, and a lack of collective agency frequently lead to ineffective planning and heightened ten- sions in relations. We identify lessons to be learned from partner- ships and initiatives already established in Sakhalin and Western Siberia, despite the lack of a stable legal framework to govern rela- tions. This issue focuses on the academic-practitioner interface, em- phasizing the importance of practical application of academic research and the value of non-academic contributions to academic debates.

Introduction Twenty-three-year-old Kolia lives as a reindeer herder in the northernmost part of the Yamal peninsula, whose Nenets name is translated as 'edge of the land'. The above quote was his answer to my question, whether he would be ready to give up his herd on the tundra in exchange for a job in a town of village. This simple and clear statement in favour of a future life on the tundra is not exceptional for Nentsy youth, although Kolia and other young men went to a Russian boarding school for eleven years, did their service in the Russian army, and lived a few years in big cities like Tyumen' or Rostov on the Don, cities of a world which they themselves call 'civilised', in comparison to the tundra where they live. Kolia fought in Chechnya, was wounded and spent six months in St Petersburg in rehabilitation, experienced all the blessings of civilisation, but never had doubts about coming back to the tundra, marrying a Nenets woman who would work as a chumrabotnitsa, (1) and herding his reindeer. Kolia's case is illustrative of both the persistence and continuity and yet also the flexibility and adaptability of the reindeer herders' way of life. I shall narrate a success story of reindeer herding in a region whose indigenous inhabitants live in chums (tepee-like tents) on the tundra far from the villages, but which is today among the richest regions of Russia, containing 90 percent of all Russian gas reserves. The indigenous Nentsy always were and still are very proud and convinced of being the best reindeer breeders of the Russian Federation. Indeed, more domestic reindeer graze on the territory of the Yamal-Nentsy than anywhere else in the world. Concerning the future of reindeer herding, this is a development that leads authors such as Krupnik to a 'reserved optimism, particularly in certain areas, based upon historical record of endurance and adaptability of the Siberian indigenous people' (2000a: 49). In this paper I mainly focus on the reindeer herders themselves: how did they manage to continue their economy, in the face of so many external obstacles? Recently, Anderson and Ikeya observed that very little research existed on 'the subtlety by which people attempt to engage with surrounding forces so as to change its political environment in its own terms' (2001: 2). This contribution will try to fill this gap a little, by identifying the common traits that can be found in all interactions between reindeer herders and outsiders, including Soviet power elites, geological explorers, commercial entrepreneurs, and gas- of oil producers. The main argument is that it is the pattern of these interactions that makes this region more successful than others. These people are no victims of manipulation of exploitation; they are actors who dominate and sometimes dictate their engagements with surrounding forces. Data for this article were gathered in 2000 and 2001 during anthropological fieldwork in the YNAO (2), sponsored by the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany. The main work was done on the tundra of the Yamal peninsula. Interviews in the villages, in Salekhard and in Moscow contribute different perspectives to understanding the present developments and also provide historical insights. I shall begin by first briefly reviewing the YNAO as a region and then focus on reindeer breeding. The YNAO The YNAO is one of the less famous, but most important regions of the Russian Federation. (3) With an area of 750,300 [km.sup.2] (about one-and-a-half times the size of France), it is situated in the West Siberian North on the geographic border between Europe and Asia east of the Ural Mountains (Figure 1). The population of 496,600 people is made up mainly of Russian-speaking industrial workers and administrative staff who live in the cities in the south of the region: Novyi Urengoj, Nadym, Nojabrsk, Muravlenko, Gubkinskii, and the administrative centre Salekhard with the neighbouring Labytnangi. …