We explain what’s wrong with reindeer herding — and where the domestic reindeer really go, on the ground and on paper. Between 2020 and 2024, five billion rubles were allocated to support reindeer herding in Yakutia. This year alone, the regional budget will provide more than 1.3 billion. These optimistic figures were announced by Yakutia’s head, Aisen Nikolaev, at the Fourth Reindeer Herders’ Congress. And yet, this traditional livelihood of the local Indigenous peoples is in dire straits.