“From Human Rights Defenders to ‘Terrorists’”: DW on the “Aborigen Forum” Case

German outlet Deutsche Welle has published an article about the persecution of Indigenous rights defenders in Russia connected to the “Aborigen Forum” case.

At the center of the story are Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt, who were arrested following mass searches on December 17, 2025. Both women face up to 20 years in prison on charges of participating in a “terrorist organization.”

As DW notes, the criminal case is based on a court ruling that declared the “Aborigen Forum” to be a subdivision of the “Forum of Free States of Post-Russia,” which had previously been designated as a terrorist organization. At the same time, the community itself had spent years engaged in human rights, environmental, and educational work, while its members spoke at UN platforms and cooperated with international organizations.

The article emphasizes that many of those targeted in the case never advocated separatism. Among the members of the community mentioned in the report is human rights defender Irina Kurilova.

The article describes her as a journalist who worked for many years in ethnic media and participated in human rights and public initiatives related to the Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North. Through her story, the article demonstrates that participants in the “Aborigen Forum” were not underground political activists, but people involved in journalism, cultural projects, and human rights work.

The article also notes that after the beginning of the criminal prosecution and searches, some members of the community were forced to leave Russia.

DW views the “Aborigen Forum” case as part of a broader trend of increasing repression against human rights defenders, environmental activists, and representatives of national minorities in Russia following the start of the war against Ukraine.

Read the article.