Feedback Anti-Discrimination Centre Memorial launches the podcast series in English in 2024.
The first episode is devoted to Indigenous rights. Our colleague Yana Tannagasheva, a well-known activist and member of the Shor people, an Indigenous group in southern Siberia, told us about the current situation of Indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation.
Yana currently represents the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia – a group of activists living in forced displacement. Yana spoke about the risks to expect from the new wave of repression against activists and defenders of Indigenous rights in Russia.
Yana Tannagasheva says:
The Russian government is using Indigenous peoples, is using RAIPON, to achieve its goals, which are to secure territories, extract mineral resources, and continue influencing the international community and enriching itself at the expense of Indigenous peoples. Like marionettes, these subordinate organizations are always attached to strings. And today they are attached to the government’s strings. I say this a lot, and I’ll repeat it now: Indigenous peoples who are ingratiating themselves with the government today will never be friends with this government. That is, the Russian Federation will never consider Indigenous peoples its friends. And this will have a disastrous effect on Indigenous peoples in the future. When these violations intensify, the representatives of Indigenous peoples will see violations and start to claim their rights.
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