Selkup activist arrested

Before the New Year, on 17 December, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow ruled to place Daria Yegereva, a representative of the Selkup people and the Centre for Support of Indigenous Peoples, under arrest. She is accused of participating in the activities of the Aboriginal Forum, an association of experts on the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East. The forum has been declared an extremist and later a terrorist organisation in the Russian Federation, because the aforementioned Centre for Indigenous Peoples is also a member of this association. According to the authorities, the Aboriginal Forum is part of the anti-Russian separatists and the Forum of Free States of Future Russia, both of which are considered fictitious organisations by the FSB.

Persecution of activists

In addition, searches and interrogations were conducted at the homes of several indigenous rights activists in the Murmansk, Tomsk, and Kemerovo oblasts, the Altai and Sakha (Yakutia) republics, the Krasnoyarsk Krai, and St. Petersburg. For example, in the Murmansk Oblast, a search was conducted at the home of Saami activist Valentina Sovkina, who in 2010 headed the Saami Parliament of the Kola Peninsula and represented the Saami at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Even then, Sovkina had major problems leaving the Russian Federation, sometimes with her passport, sometimes with her car tyres being slashed.

Yegereva’s arrest is primarily linked to her activities at the United Nations Indigenous Peoples’ Forum, where she led discussions on climate issues. For years, Daria Yegereva has drawn attention to the national problems of the Selkup people. In addition to environmental issues, she has raised questions about Selkup education, including the virtually non-existent teaching of the Selkup language. According to the latest census, there were 3,458 Selkups living in the Russian Federation, with 975 speakers of the Selkup language.