The ADC Memorial continues to address the issues facing indigenous peoples in its anti-discrimination podcast.
The “Сonnected” podcast series will feature interviews with Indigenous activists, human rights defenders, and experts, who will talk about their participation in current events, conferences, and discussions, as well as their work on Indigenous Peoples’ rights.
In the first episode of the “Сonnected” series, Pavel Sulyandziga, head of the Batani Foundation and a member of the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia (ICIPR), talks about his participation in the 25th session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (New York, late April 2026). The session focused on Indigenous Peoples’ health. Pavel’s interventions addressed not only this issue, but also a matter of particular urgency for the Indigenous Peoples of Russia: state repression against Indigenous activists and human rights defenders. He called on the international Indigenous community to show solidarity in efforts to secure the release of activists Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt, who were arrested for their human rights work.
Sound design: Ostap Kukhar
You can listen in Russian:
Text version of the podcast
We are publishing a transcript of the “Сonnected” podcast. The text has been slightly edited for ease of reading.
Here, we’ll be discussing events relating to Russia’s Indigenous peoples and the protection of their rights. Or rather, it won’t be us speaking, but representatives of the Indigenous peoples themselves. And today, as the segment’s title suggests, we are joined by Pavel Sulyandziga — one of the co-founders of the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia.
— I’d like to ask you a few questions about the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The forum’s latest session is currently taking place. My first question relates directly to your participation. What did you want to convey to the forum?
—The main point I wanted to convey this year was to speak about the repression that took place in December 2025 — the mass repression against representatives of the Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East, as well as the arrest of two activists and leaders, Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt.
— Were there also mass detentions and searches?
— Yes. Seventeen representatives – activists and leaders of the Indigenous small-numbered peoples – in ten regions of the Russian Federation, mainly in Siberia and the North, were subjected to searches and interrogations. Computers and telephones were seized. From one of the activists whose home was searched, all the literature she had brought back from UN meetings was also seized.
On 17 December 2025 – it was clear that this was a coordinated operation: FSB officers and special forces, armed with automatic rifles, simultaneously arrived at the homes of activists in ten regions of the Russian Federation and carried out searches. As a result of this operation, two of our female activists were arrested.
— Are they facing up to ten years?
— Yes. They are accused of terrorism. It is absurd, of course. The case is currently being heard in court. Unfortunately, this is happening.
One of my objectives at the current session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues was precisely to report on what is happening. And most importantly – to convey to the forum’s participants the real situation regarding the rights of Indigenous peoples in Russia.
Russia, the government, is using the forum as a platform for its own ends. This includes RAIPON – an organisation that was once set up by the Indigenous peoples themselves to defend their rights, but which today, in my view, is carrying out the orders of the Russian authorities. RAIPON representatives tell ‘fairy tales’ on UN platforms about how well Indigenous peoples live in Russia and how the Russian government tirelessly looks after them. Of course, it is very important to dispel all these lies and propaganda.
— I’d like to return to the subject of RAIPON a little later. But for now, let’s talk about repression. Was there any reaction to your speeches?
— Yes, of course. I believe we received a very strong response and a message of solidarity from the other participants in the session — leaders and activists from Indigenous peoples’ organisations from all over the world, as well as representatives from various countries. Representatives of Indigenous peoples from Asia, Latin America, Africa, North America, Oceania, Australia and New Zealand, whilst speaking and sharing their concerns, also emphasised the importance of securing the release of Daria Yegereva and Natalia Leongardt. They noted that it is unjust and unlawful to accuse people of terrorism simply because they are defending the rights of Indigenous peoples, their communities, their way of life and the environment. I think the Russian authorities were very unhappy that this issue had caused such a stir and that representatives of Indigenous peoples from different regions of the world had expressed such strong solidarity with the Indigenous peoples of Russia. That was important.
— Each session of the forum has a main theme. What was it this year?
— The theme was the health of Indigenous peoples. In my speech, I spoke about how the physical health of indigenous peoples is an extremely important issue and that measures need to be developed to support it. But at the same time, I said that it is no less important to talk about the mental and psychological health of Indigenous peoples.
I cited the example of members of the Indigenous small-numbered peoples in the North, Siberia and the Far East, who have endured pressure and humiliation for generations. We carried out research in Kamchatka. Unfortunately, we did not have the resources for a large-scale study, but even this limited research showed that the suicide rate among members of the Indigenous small-numbered peoples there is extremely high.
I cited the example of one community where the average age of those who had died was just over 30. Moreover, around 30 per cent of these deaths were suicides. This is happening because people’s hunting and fishing grounds are being taken away from them. They become strangers on their own land. They are not always allowed to go hunting or fishing, even though that is how they feed their families.
— Yes, and on top of that, they are even prosecuted for it.
— They are prosecuted, and many end up with criminal records specifically for poaching.
— And is the proportion of such criminal records high?
— Very high. I gave the example of one Evenki village. That was about eighteen years ago, and perhaps the situation has changed now, but back then, when we were conducting our research, there wasn’t a single man over the age of eighteen in that village who didn’t have a criminal record.
Of course, some of them had been convicted of other offences, but the overwhelming majority of men had been convicted specifically for poaching.
— And was that what you were talking about at the forum?
— Yes. And I can say that whilst previously representatives of the Russian government would usually instruct RAIPON to respond to my speeches and those of my colleagues, labelling us as foreign agents, enemies and so on, this time the head of the Federal Agency for Ethnic Affairs of the Russian Federation (FADN) spoke immediately after me. He could no longer contain himself and declared that the person who had spoken before him was ‘a representative of some committee that represents no one, receives money from Western countries and so on’.
— They usually say that you do not represent anyone because you live abroad. That is their main argument. How would you respond to that?
— This is an utterly cynical statement by the Russian government.
— And where do you see scope today for protecting the rights of Russia’s Indigenous peoples?
— First and foremost, through the mechanisms of the United Nations.
In my view, for Indigenous peoples in countries such as Russia, international law and international standards on the rights of Indigenous peoples remain the only real legal protection. National mechanisms are either non-existent or function extremely poorly. It is therefore international standards that provide the opportunity to assert one’s rights and bring information to the attention of the international community.
I can give an example. For a long time, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva ran training courses on the rights of Indigenous peoples. These were run for English-, Spanish- and French-speaking audiences, and there was also a Russian-speaking group, which was mainly attended by representatives of Russia’s Indigenous peoples. Currently, the English-, French- and Spanish-language programmes continue to run, whilst the Russian-language programme has been closed down.
I believe this happened largely at the instigation of the Russian authorities. Even in recent years, when the selection of participants was effectively controlled by RAIPON, which sent only young activists it deemed ‘trusted’, the same thing happened. After their placement in Geneva, people would return home and start saying: ‘We were told one thing in Russia, but international law says something completely different. We were only told about benefits, but it turns out we also have rights.’
People began asking uncomfortable questions and realised they had been misled. I think that is precisely why the Russian authorities decided to withdraw from this programme.
— So the main struggle is the struggle against propaganda?
— Yes, absolutely. That said, I am convinced that representatives of Russia’s Indigenous peoples continue to keep an eye on what is happening. Many have access to the internet; they read, watch and understand what is going on. Of course, they cannot speak out openly today, but they can see what is happening.
For example, even before the current level of repression, we used to organise live broadcasts from UN sessions featuring speeches by independent representatives of Russia’s Indigenous peoples. During the broadcasts, people from Russia would post comments. Very often they would say: ‘At last, someone is telling the truth about what’s going on.’
I remember that after a speech by one of the representatives of the Indigenous peoples of Taimyr, who was talking about how the company helps the local population, a man from Taimyr wrote a very harsh comment. He said: ‘Don’t tell fairy tales here about how well we live and how the company helps us. You’d be better off going home and asking them to at least bring some bread to our village — we don’t even have bread here.”
— It’s hard to imagine such live coverage today, but we’re also trying to get this information across, not least through interviews like this one.
Thank you very much, Pavel. Thank you to our listeners. That was a podcast from the Anti-Discrimination Centre “Memorial” and our “Connected” segment.
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The ‘Сonnected’ podcast series highlights the project ‘Indigenous Peoples’ Rights for a Democratic Future’, which is being implemented by INFOE (Institut für Ökologie und Aktions-Ethnologie e.V.), ICIPR (International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia), the Never Again Association and the ADC Memorial, with the support of the German Federal Foreign Office.
