Kremlin intensifies repression against Russia’s indigenous peoples
The Russian authorities have stepped up persecution of the country’s indigenous populations, using arrests, censorship, and selective mobilisation for the war against Ukraine.
According to Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service, at least 17 activists from Altai, Yakutia, Tomsk, Murmansk, Kemerovo, and Krasnoyarsk were detained in December 2025. These individuals had long advocated for community rights, environmental protection, and traditional crafts, even raising awareness at UN forums about the risk of their ethnic groups disappearing.
While official propaganda portrays Russia as a “multinational state” preserving the languages and cultures of over 190 peoples, in reality the Association of Indigenous Minorities of the North, Siberia, and the Far East has been turned into a compliant instrument promoting Kremlin-approved narratives and supporting aggression against Kyiv.
Meanwhile, 172 human rights organisations within the “Forum of Free Post-Soviet States” report systemic repression; Russia has labelled the forum “terrorist” and banned it.
The war is accelerating the physical elimination of small ethnic groups. In Khabarovsk Krai, for example, 95 indigenous people were mobilised compared with 34 ethnic Russians for every 10,000 residents — effectively being used as “cannon fodder.” Rights groups warn that under the guise of “multinationalism,” the Kremlin is eroding these communities both culturally and physically, threatening their very survival.
Russia ended 2025 with serious economic and industrial challenges and has refused to unblock Roblox despite the company’s attempts to negotiate.
