Russia’s Supreme Court designated 172 indigenous groups as “terrorist” organizations, accusing them of lobbying for secession and supporting Ukraine’s military, the Prosecutor General’s Office
announced Friday.
Authorities claimed these groups are “structural subdivisions” of the Free Nations of PostRussia Forum, a Poland-based organization founded in 2022. The forum describes itself as a platform advocating for the decolonization and fragmentation of Russia into 41 independent states.
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Sargylana Kondakova, co-founder of the Free Yakutia Foundation, an Indigenous rights group from the republic of Sakha (Yakutia), said her organization is not a part of the Free Nations of PostRussia Forum and rejected the Russian authorities’ description of its activities.
“This decision is defamation in its purest form,” Kondakova told The Moscow Times, referring to Friday’s “terrorist” designation. “We do not position ourselves as a nationalist separatist movement, we do not have a goal of partitioning the Russian Federation into multiple states.”
“We are an independent organization that focuses on advocating for the rights of Indigenous people living in the republic of Sakha and combatting propaganda within the republic,” she added. “We do consider ourselves a decolonial movement because decolonizing Russia is a prerequisite for future peace.”
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