Freedom for Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt!

Today, Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt remain behind bars — people who spent years defending the interests of Indigenous communities and working for their future. Instead of recognition for this work, they are being held in pre-trial detention, accused of “participating in the activities of a terrorist organization.” They face between 10 and 20 years in prison.

Daria Egereva is a representative of the Selkup people, co-chair of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change, a member of the UN Indigenous Peoples’ Coordinating Body, and a participant in the international Indigenous rights movement. Natalia Leongardt is a human rights defender and specialist in the rights of the Indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East, who has devoted 20 years to this work.

Daria and Natalia are being prosecuted because of their alleged connection to the “Aborigen Forum” — a peaceful expert community engaged in research, education, and the defense of Indigenous peoples’ rights. The Forum never committed or called for acts of violence. Nevertheless, Russian authorities first designated it as an “extremist” organization and later as a “terrorist” organization.

On December 17, 2025, a repressive campaign against representatives of Indigenous peoples swept across ten Russian regions. Searches and interrogations were carried out against at least 17 people. Since that day, Daria and Natalia have remained in detention — for almost eight months.

It is painful to watch this injustice unfold before our eyes: peoples who have spent decades fighting to preserve their traditions are now facing not only neglect and violations of their rights, but also the persecution of those who speak out about these problems.

Defending nature, culture, language, land, and the rights of one’s people is not a crime!

We demand the immediate release of Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt and an end to the persecution of Indigenous peoples’ representatives and human rights defenders.

Source: Greanpeace на русском