Daria Egereva was scheduled to come to New York next week. The indigenous Selkup climate change advocate is expected to return to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, where he spoke two years ago about how indigenous peoples face environmental degradation and climate change. Instead, she faces up to 20 years in prison on terrorism charges this year and is being held in a Russian prison.
Egereva was arrested on December 17, along with another Russian indigenous activist, Natalia Leongart, whose name was not made public until last week. Both are accused of joining a terrorist group, stemming from their previous involvement with Aboriginal Forum, an informal network of indigenous defenders that was shut down by the Russian government two years ago.
Experts say their detention signals growing repression of indigenous advocacy in the Russian Federation and is part of Russia’s broader shift toward authoritarianism, which has worsened since the country invaded Ukraine. “Indigenous activists are ushering in a new form of repression, and the Russian government is then testing all other activists, environmentalists, feminists, other groups of people, human rights,” said Laura Henry, a government studies professor at Bowdoin College who studies contemporary Russian politics.
Mr. Egereva has been active in international climate change advocacy for many years and currently co-chairs the International Indigenous Forum on Climate Change, which represents indigenous perspectives at United Nations meetings. Those who know her describe her as upbeat and an inspiration to others, even as she grapples with deep-rooted challenges like climate change.
“She is a strong advocate of the need to recognize the security of indigenous land rights,” said Joan Carling, an indigenous Kankanaei from the Philippines and co-founder of Indigenous Rights International, adding that Egereva is also a strong advocate of recognizing the value of indigenous knowledge. “We use our traditional knowledge to contribute to many effective solutions to climate change, so it needs to be not only valued, but strengthened and supported.”
Two years ago, Egereva spoke at the Permanent Forum in New York, calling on United Nations member states to respect the rights of indigenous peoples. “Many indigenous peoples continue to be displaced from their lands and experience land degradation, environmental degradation and lack of access to basic services,” she said, adding that climate change is an emerging challenge. “These challenges increase the vulnerability of indigenous peoples around the world.” Her comments echoed statements Carling heard from Egereva.
“Even in the global space, she is not attacking Russia per se, but contributing to discussing and presenting indigenous issues in general,” Carling said.
In November, Egereva attended COP30 in Belém, Brazil, where she spoke about the importance of including indigenous women in climate policy discussions. On December 17, she was arrested along with Leongart, a former intern at United Nations headquarters in Geneva who is known for her work leading education programs for indigenous peoples in Russia.
Last month, a Russian court agreed to extend their detention until at least June. They each face up to 20 years in prison.
The sharp increase in Russian repression has led the United Nations to appoint a new special rapporteur on the Russian Federation. Current Special Rapporteur Mariana Katsalova wrote in a report last fall that Russia is silencing opposition to the war against Ukraine and that repression will worsen in 2024 and 2025. She highlighted specific harms to journalists, environmental defenders, indigenous peoples defenders and other marginalized groups. “Sergei Ketimov, an indigenous Khanty shaman who fought against the oil giant Surgutneftegaz over a sacred lake, died after a long period of persecution for his environmental activism,” her report details.
Just last week, Katsalova and other U.N. officials called for the release of Egereva and Leongard. “We are deeply alarmed by this blatant abuse of anti-terrorism and anti-extremism laws, which criminalize peaceful expression and anti-war positions and lead to the complete destruction of Russian civil society,” they wrote. “This practice is unacceptable and must end.”
Russia’s indigenous environmentalists have long clashed with the state over their rights. “There was a moment in the 1990s when Indigenous activists stood alongside other peoples struggling for democracy, autonomy, and more local decision-making,” said Henry, the Bowdoin College professor. “But I think one of the real challenges that emerged long before the authoritarian turn was that Russia started to become a kind of oil state, an extractive state, a natural resource-dependent state. That drove economic growth and economic recovery, and that model became a national priority. And it just so happens that there is a very important congruence between traditional indigenous territories and these extractive lands.”
As Russia’s indigenous communities experience further environmental degradation due to fossil fuel production and loss of access to territory, they speak out about what they are experiencing locally and abroad, much to the displeasure of the Russian government. In 2012, Russia enacted a “foreign agent” law to shut down organizations allegedly influenced by foreign governments. Around this time, the government also accused indigenous rights activists of being “separatists,” and the crackdown was fueled by intolerance of dissent and a desire to control speech and information. “I think these new charges of extremism and terrorism are just another escalation and are really shocking to so many people,” Henry said.
In 2018, German indigenous rights researcher and advocate Johannes Rohr was exiled from Russia for 50 years after raising concerns in Geneva about how the indigenous Nenets people of Russia’s Yamal Peninsula were being affected by liquefied natural gas projects. OVD-Info, an independent group that tracks political prosecutions and detentions in Russia, said Rohr’s deportation comes amid a broader and sharp increase in political repression. The number of politically motivated detentions quadrupled, from 46 in 2012 to 220 in 2018, and doubled from 220 in 2018 to 449 in 2024, the latest year available. “It felt like the end of the world at the time,” Lohr said. Now he says his fate is inferior to Egereva and Leongard’s and he could be imprisoned for decades. “Every time you think it can’t get any worse, it somehow gets even worse,” he added.
In 2024, Russia designated more than 170 organizations as terrorist groups, including the Aboriginal Forum, an informal network of indigenous rights defenders. Ms. Egereva became affiliated through her work with a membership organization known as the Northern Indigenous Minority Support Center. Ms. Leongard is also a former administrator of the center and organized internships and international exchanges for Indigenous participants. “We condemn this deliberate strategy of using ‘extremism’ and counterterrorism frameworks to dismantle civil society, criminalize and imprison human rights defenders, and target those who seek their support,” the UN special rapporteurs said in a recent statement. “Russian authorities must immediately halt proceedings against human rights defenders and anti-war critics and release everyone arbitrarily detained for peaceful human rights work.”
As a result, Indigenous advocates are discouraged from maintaining global networks in solidarity with other Indigenous peoples and from speaking out about what’s happening in their territories and issues such as climate change, Henry said. “Russia is one of the countries where climate change denialism remains quite strong, and there is a sense that international efforts to address climate change are actually part of a covert effort to undermine Russia,” she said. “This rhetoric is paralleled by the fact that permafrost is rapidly melting in northern Russia, causing unending problems for infrastructure from roads to railways, pipelines and housing, and that the Russian government has set up elaborate permafrost monitoring.”
Egereva and Leongard’s international colleagues say their detention is damaging the international community. “Daria represents Russia’s small indigenous Selkup people, and her absence[at the UN Permanent Forum]is particularly important for minority indigenous representatives,” said Ivana Enmicau, an indigenous Nuvakagmite from Russia who plans to attend the UN event. “[Losing]even one person like Daria has a profound impact on their ability to represent their issues and concerns and their ability to be heard.”
Carling said that given her work advocating for indigenous women in international climate change discussions, Egereva’s absence will be exacerbated with each upcoming climate change conference, including the Bonn Climate Change Conference in Germany in June this year and COP31 in Turkey in November. “We should not tolerate the silencing of Indigenous peoples, no matter where they are or where they come from,” Carling said.
For Egereva and Leongart, the cost of this repression of indigenous peoples and environmental advocacy is deeply personal. This month, Egereva celebrated her 49th birthday in prison. She is a mother of two children.
