Feedback ADC Memorial and ICIPR informed the UN about the signing by representatives of the indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation and Russian civil society of the Orcas Island Declaration: A Statement of Reconciliation and Respect (named after the meeting place – the territory of Lammi, the indigenous people of North America). This document was developed with the participation of representatives of indigenous peoples, activists of the Russian opposition, human rights defenders, experts and lawyers, based on the experience of other countries in overcoming the colonial past.
The authors of the analytical material also drew the Secretary General’s attention to the fact that in the context of the war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine and the general persecution of dissidents, people with anti-war and anti-colonial positions, racism and xenophobia in Russia are turning into a state ideology. Chauvinistic, particularly anti-Ukrainian and anti-migrant rhetoric, has become mainstream in the state media and in public statements by government officials. The high-level support of movements and groups with xenophobic ideology and the delegation of the right to use violence to them is very alarming. There is reason to believe that these groups, at least in some regions of the Russian Federation, are acting by request of law enforcement agencies. These groups participated in racist incidents where people died, as well as in mass riots, in particular in the anti-Roma pogrom in Korkino, Chelyabinsk region (2023).