Today, regional administrative units have had to replace the former state centralized subsidies for infrastructure and social welfare, but these government entities are highly dependent on the oil, gas and mineral industries in the regions where they exist. The extreme dependency on these industries continues to restrict the bargaining power of the indigenous population, which remains linked to former collective institutions. In the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, the sovkhozi have few options for survival in the transitional market economy. Some have become subsidiaries of the district's monopolistic oil and gas companies, a strategy that allows their continued activity in the short run but reduces their ability to achieve self-determination. Today, the policy on northern regions and nationalities is unsettled.
Some scientists remain proponents of central control and paternalistic care of northern communities.
This avoids the paternalism of central control, but since indigenous minorities compose only a small fraction of the population of each of these republic and district-level governments, native peoples would have little say in control and management of lands and waters they have traditionally used and occupied. While there are some indications that policies made closer to home by regional authorities will better serve the interests of indigenous peoples, there is little reason to expect these governments to share power willingly with the indigenous minorities within their borders despite the claims of indigenous peoples to international and national rights to protect their land, livelihood and culture. Some of the historical impacts of the NSR are directly caused by use and maintenance of the sea route itself. The resulting chaotic migratory behavior of the Taymyr population of wild reindeer threatens the staple food source for native groups throughout the Lower Yenisei Valley. This in turn has destroyed the local economy of the reindeer-herding Dolgan and Nganasan population.