A team of sociologists and social anthropologists, as part of the Pure Arctic—Vostok-77 high-latitude comprehensive expedition, are conducting discussions with employees of various municipal organisations who interact with representatives of small indigenous minorities. The insights from officials and representatives of indigenous peoples will serve as the foundation for a chat-based public hearing simulator. This is reported by TASS.

The programme is being developed to minimise the potential for political or commercial manipulation and to educate indigenous peoples on recognising manipulation not just from officials or industrialists but also from their numerous 'well-wishers'—those who monetise national ideas or are simply extremists.

'The project will aid in deeply exploring the current state of indigenous communities, categorising leaders at local, national and federal levels, identifying destabilising and antisocial forms of leadership, and technologies leading to extremism, while all chat activities are game-based. No actual people or real states will be named or affected,' stated Rodion Kosorukov, the research coordinator.

Expedition members studying processes in modern Sami communities in Russia and neighbouring countries have devised a model that will allow a detached examination and analysis of various forms of support and protection of the rights of the indigenous peoples of the North in different countries, using the examples of three fictitious peoples—reindeer herders, fishermen and hunters.