page_title: Mari El
section_title: Politics
hierarchical_section_title: Mari El / Politics
caption_attribution_description: English: Building of the government of republic of Mary El Русский: Здание правительства республики Марий Эл. Ленинский просп. 29, Йошкар-Ола. Здание было построено в 1971 г. для Совета министров и ОК КПСС МАССР. С 1991 г. здесь располагается Правительство Республики Марий Эл.
context_page_description: The Mari El Republic is a federal subject of Russia. It is geographically located in the European Russia region of the country, along the northern bank of the Volga River, and is administratively part of the Volga Federal District. The Mari El Republic has a population of 696,459.
  Yoshkar-Ola is the capital and the largest city of the Republic.
  Mari El is one of Russia's ethnic republics, primarily representing the indigenous Mari people, a Finno-Ugric ethnic group who have traditionally lived along the Volga River and Kama River. The majority of the Republic's population are ethnic Russians and Mari, with minority populations of Tatars and Chuvash. The official languages of Mari El are Russian and the Mari language. Mari El is bordered by Nizhny Novgorod Oblast to the west, Kirov Oblast to the north, Tatarstan to the east, and Chuvashia to the south.
context_section_description: The head of government in the Mari El Republic is the Head (formerly President). As of 2017, the Head is Alexander Yevstifeyev, who was appointed in April 2017.
  The government of Mari El has been pursuing Russification in recent years, with the former head of the republic, Leonid Markelov, ordering many Mari language newspapers to close.  Many ethnic Mari activists live in fear of violence. The Mari activist and chief editor Vladimir Kozlov was badly beaten after he criticized Markelov's government. Other Mari leaders have been subject to violence, legal persecution, and intimidation.
  The Mari people's native religion has  encountered hostility as well. Vitaly Tanakov was charged with inciting religious, national, social and linguistic hatred after publishing the book The Priest Speaks.
  The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) and the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG),in an exhaustive 2006 report Russian Federation: The Human Rights Situation of the Mari Minority of the Republic of Mari El, found widespread evidence of political and cultural persecution of Mari people, and of "a broader trend of repression of dissidents in the republic".
caption: Building of the Government of Mari El.
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