RUSSIA HAS DETAINED A SECOND INDIGENOUS ACTIVIST IN “ABORIGEN FORUM” TERRORISM CASE

A Russian court has remanded a second Indigenous rights defender in custody as part of a widening case linked to the banned activist network known as the ‘Aborigen Forum’.

Natalya Leongardt, a 58-year-old specialist on the rights of Indigenous peoples in Russia’s North, Siberia and Far East, was detained on Dec. 17, 2025, and ordered into pre-trial detention the following day by Moscow’s Basmanny District Court, according to rights organizations and media reports.

Leongardt is accused of participating in the activities of the Aborigen Forum, an informal network of Indigenous activists and experts that Russian authorities have designated a terrorist organization under Article 205.5 of the criminal code.

The charge carries a potential prison sentence of 10 to 20 years.

She is being prosecuted alongside Daria Egereva, an Indigenous Selkup activist and climate advocate who was arrested in the same case.

Both women are being held at a Moscow pre-trial detention center, where their detention has been extended pending investigation.

The arrests followed coordinated searches across at least 10 regions of Russia, affecting no fewer than 17 individuals, including members of Indigenous communities from Siberia and the Arctic. Most were later released, but authorities pursued criminal charges against key figures in the network.

Russian officials allege that the Aborigen Forum is linked to extremist and terrorist activity. However, rights advocates say the network functioned as a peaceful platform that represented the needs and interests of Indigenous peoples from multiple regions.

The Aborigen Forum was labeled “extremist” in 2024 and later classified as a terrorist organization by Russia’s Supreme Court, despite a lack of publicly disclosed evidence linking it to any form of violence. The network subsequently ceased its activities, but authorities have continued to pursue individuals allegedly connected to it.

According to MediaZone, a total of eight criminal acts are being investigated in the case: the distribution of military “fakes”, calls for separatism, participation in an “extremist” organization, incitement to hatred or enmity, the rehabilitation of Nazism, the creation of a terrorist community and a terrorist organization and participation in them, as well as abuse of the Russian flag or emblem.

No trial date has been announced.

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Source: IC Magazine