‘We will not survive’: jailing of Daria Egereva highlights plight of Russia’s Indigenous people

Authorities are cracking down on rights activists fighting for Indigenous people threatened by authoritarianism, extractivism and climate breakdown

The operation began at 9am Moscow time, but took place across all of Russia’s 11 time zones. Almost simultaneously, agents of the federal security service (FSB) raided the homes and workplaces of 17 Indigenous rights activists.

Officers carried out searches, confiscated laptops and phones, and arrested and interrogated activists about participation in international forums. Most were let go; many have since left the country. Others remain in Russia, but will no longer speak up.

Six months later, one remains in jail. Daria Egereva, one of Russia’s foremost Indigenous rights activists, is accused of membership of a terror group. No trial date has been set. Her supporters say the charges are fabricated and she has been targeted for speaking out.

Egereva was not just any activist. A member of the Selkup indigenous group, from western Siberia, she was a “bright star” of Russia’s indigenous rights movement. As a member of the UN’s Indigenous Peoples’ Coordinating Body, she had international status. Weeks before her arrest, she had played a key role at Cop30 in Brazil as co-chair of the Indigenous People’s Forum on Climate Change.

Her jailing has shone a spotlight on the plight of Russia’s Indigenous people, threatened by authoritarianism, extractivism and climate breakdown.

“They are really seeing the worst effects of climate change,” said Alicia Moncada, director of global advocacy at Cultural Survival, which campaigns for Indigenous rights. “They are on the frontline of the frontline – that’s why [Egereva’s] advocacy was super important.”

The polar north is heating faster than any other part of the planet. In recent decades, temperatures in Arctic regions have risen three to four times faster than the global average. Communities based on permafrost are seeing their world collapse around them.

“The elders are saying that nature has stopped trusting us,” said one exiled Indigenous leader, who requested that his name be withheld. “The traditional ways of predicting nature are not working any more.”

Many settlements sit next to the banks of rivers and lakes. Due to the melting permafrost, those banks are beginning to crumble. “There is a real threat of destruction for a lot of those villages,” said the leader, who spoke through an interpreter. And the melting ice has brought a new source of tension: newly accessible critical mineral resources.

“All these resources of the Russian Federation, a majority of them are located under the lands of Indigenous people: gold, diamonds, oil, gas, coal,” the leader said. “For some people it is a treasure, but for us it is a curse.

“Because the companies are coming to our land for those resources and they are pushing us out. Even if they don’t push us out, the environmental situation in those places will become so bad that we are unable to hunt or fish.

“One of the elders said that we can adapt to anything, but we will not be able to survive without our land.”

Although Indigenous groups maintained their identities, by the end of the Soviet era they lacked independent organisation and relied on the state. Egereva had been part of a new generation of leaders who had encouraged community self-empowerment.

But this assertiveness brought them into conflict with the authorities. Even before the war in Ukraine, the Russian state claimed that its enemies were exploiting environmental and indigenous issues. Now, with the war a pretext for a crackdown on civil society, Indigenous people are among those at the sharp end.

To date, 830 organisations and 20,813 individuals have been put on the “list of terrorists and extremists”, according to the UN. Among them was Aborigen Forum, a network of Indigenous defenders designated an “extremist organisation” in July 2024.

Russian authorities have based their charges against Egereva and her co-defendant, Natalia Leongardt, a civil rights activist, on their involvement with Aborigen. Authorities claim it is part of an anti-state “post-Russia free nations forum”.

In a bail hearing on 29 April, Egereva and Leongardt denied being part of any anti-state conspiracy. “I am not familiar with and do not know this organisation,” Egereva told the court. “What we are being accused of is completely untrue … I ask to be allowed to return home and embrace my children.”

The court refused to grant them bail, remanding them in custody until at least mid-June. The following day, Russia celebrated a new federal holiday: the “Day of Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples”.

The Russian embassy told the Guardian: “The investigation concerning Daria Egereva is an internal Russian legal matter, conducted in full accordance with Russian law. As proceedings are ongoing, we are not in a position to comment on the specifics of the case.

“Russia firmly rejects any allegations of violations of Indigenous people’s rights. Unlike a number of western states – including Britain in its former colonies – Russia has no history of forced assimilation of Indigenous communities. Russian law affords Indigenous peoples special legal protections, guaranteeing their collective and individual rights, cultural identity, and linguistic heritage under the constitution and in line with international norms.

“Russia is actively engaged in the international climate agenda, taking account of both the challenges and the economic opportunities emerging in its northern regions – including expanded access to the northern sea route and mineral resources in permafrost zones. All such projects are carried out with the aim of supporting regional development, creating jobs and attracting investment, including for the benefit of Indigenous communities in these areas.”