The Indigenous World 2025: Russia

Written on 25 April 2025. Posted in Russia

Indigenous Peoples are not recognized by the Russian legislation as such; however, Article 67 of the current constitution guarantees the rights of “Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples”. The 1999 Federal Act “On Guarantees of the Rights of the Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples of the Russian Federation” specifies that Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples are groups of less than 50,000 members, perpetuating some aspects of their traditional ways of life. According to this and two other framework laws that were enacted during the late 1990s, Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples have rights to consultation and participation in specific cases. There is, however, no such concept as “Free, Prior and Informed Consent” enshrined in legislation. The last two decades have seen a steady erosion of this legal framework and a heavy re-centralization of Russia, including the abolition of several Indigenous autonomous territories.

Of the more than 160 peoples inhabiting the territory of contemporary Russia, 47 are officially recognized as Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples, including 40 that are recognized as Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East. One more group, the Izhma Komi or Izvatas, is pursuing recognition, which continues to be denied. Together, Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples number over 315,000, including some 265,000 that belong to Small-Numbered Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East, around 0.2% of Russia’s total population of over 147,000,000 (of which ethnic Russians account for approximately 72%).^[1] Many other peoples, whose numbers exceed 50,000, such as the Sakha (Yakut) and Buryat of the Russian Far East, the Volga Tatars, Bashkirs and many groups populating the North Caucasus are not officially considered Indigenous Peoples, and their self-identification varies.

Since the Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, several ethnic groups who self-identify as Indigenous have come under Russia’s effective control, even though Russia has not recognized this self-identification: the Crimean Tatars, the Krymchaks and the Karaim. In 2021, Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, adopted the Law on Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine recognizing the three groups as Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine.^[2]

Two-thirds of Indigenous Peoples are rural and depend on traditional subsistence strategies such as fishing, hunting and reindeer herding, although Russia on the whole is a highly urbanized country.

Civil society is affected by continually shrinking spaces as the country’s secret police, the Federal Security Service (FSB), has gradually been gaining power. An array of repressive laws that seek to silence critics of the government has led many civil society organizations, including Indigenous Peoples’ organizations, and independent media, to close down. Many human rights defenders, including some prominent Indigenous rights activists, have been prosecuted or forced to seek asylum abroad.

Russia’s export revenues are largely generated from the sale of natural resources, often extracted from territories traditionally inhabited or used by Indigenous Peoples. The country’s development strategy is largely geared towards further increasing the exploitation of the Arctic’s natural resources, resulting in negative consequences for the state of Indigenous Peoples’ human rights and limiting opportunities for their effective protection.

Russia has neither ratified ILO Convention 169 nor endorsed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The country inherited its membership of the major UN Covenants and Conventions from the Soviet Union: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (ICEDAW) and Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Russia has ratified the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM); however, in October 2023 President Putin signed a decree stipulating Russia’s exit from this.

 This article is part of the 39^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. The photo above is of an Indigenous activist Funa-ay Claver, a Bontok Igorot, standing alongside Indigenous youth activists and others. They are protesting against the repressive laws and human rights violations suffered through the actions and projects of the Government of the Philippines and other actors against Indigenous Peoples at President Marcos Jr’s national address on 22 July 2024 in Quezon City, Philippines. The photo was taken by Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas and is the cover of The Indigenous World 2025 where this article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2025 in full here

Fewer channels for Indigenous Peoples to influence decision-making

In February, a group of parliamentarians submitted a bill that proposes establishing model rules to guide the establishment and operation of regional (at the local level) councils of representatives of Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples.^[3] In one form or another, all regions in Russia with Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples have such councils, whose members are unpaid. The responsibilities of the councils, their structure and make-up differ greatly from region to region but, everywhere where they exist, they are tasked with representing the Indigenous Peoples of their respective regions before authorities and economic entities that operate in areas inhabited by Indigenous Peoples. For example, the councils represent communities when new projects are considered or when issues of compensation for losses incurred by Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples as a result of environmental damages to their ancestral territories are being considered. It is this representative function that makes it important for the government to bring their establishment and principles of operation under control as overly independent councils may cause obstacles to the implementation of the government’s agenda.

Meanwhile, the government’s efforts to silence independent voices have also reached the mechanism of public environmental oversight. Until recently, one of the few remaining mechanisms that Indigenous communities could use to stop or delay projects on their land was through environmental expertise. The law allowed for public environmental impact assessments to be carried out alongside state environmental impact assessments, in which non-profit public organizations could participate.

The new version of the Law on Environmental Expertise,^[4] which came into effect in September 2024, restricts the possibility of carrying out public environmental impact assessments to organisations who have experts amongst their ranks who have undergone mandatory state certification and are included on Rosprirodnadzor's (Russian environmental watchdog) register. This new mechanism will allow state agencies to deny accreditation to those experts who have proven themselves to be too “independent”, thus weakening yet another channel for Indigenous communities to defend their rights.

This situation is further exacerbated by the fact that lawmakers want to leave it up to the regions to decide whether public hearings are required for urban development projects. This right was originally given to the regions in 2022 as a temporary measure to support the construction industry in the context of international sanctions imposed on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. This law was due to expire in 2025. In December 2024, the State Duma Committee on Ownership, Land and Property Relations approved amendments that make these norms indefinite at the second reading. According to the text of the amendments to the Urban Planning Code (UPC), the regions of the Russian Federation will be able, at their discretion, to establish cases in which public hearings will not be required for the preparation of draft general plans, as well as for amendments thereto. It is proposed that this same right be extended to territory planning and land rezoning projects adopted by municipalities. In addition, entities may have the right not to hold public hearings when preparing draft land-use and development rules (LUP) and projects that provide for amendments thereto. Indigenous Peoples’ right to participate in public hearings during environmental and ethnological expertise will thus be left to the discretion of regional and municipal officials.^[5]

While legislative work is underway to curtail the mechanisms by which Indigenous Peoples could influence decision-making on issues affecting their lives, the number and the scope of environmental pollution in Russia has been growing in recent years,^[6] including in areas populated by Indigenous Peoples.

Continued pressure on Indigenous organizations

During 2024, the Russian government continued its pressure on the last remaining civil society organizations and networks, including those focusing on Indigenous Peoples’ rights. On 25 July 2024, the Russian Ministry of Justice published a list of 55 “extremist organizations” which, the Ministry claims, are “structural subdivisions” of the “Anti-Russian Separatist Movement”. The list was published following a Supreme Court ruling on 7 June that declared the “Anti-Russian Separatist Movement” an extremist organization. Many independent experts agree that the “Anti-Russian Separatist Movement” is a fictitious entity^[7] invented by the Russian authorities to provide a pretext for prosecuting organizations it claims are members.

Aborigen Forum (AF), a network of independent Indigenous rights activists and experts, appears first on the list, immediately followed by the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia (ICIPR), a network of Indigenous activists from Russia who were forced into political exile, many of whom are former members of AF. The declaration of an organization as extremist effectively converts it into a criminal entity.

Just a few months later, on 22 November 2024, the Supreme Court declared the Free Nations of Post Russia Forum, along with 172 organizations that form its “structural branches”, an international terrorist organization. While the ruling itself did not specify which organizations it considers members of the Forum, the gap was filled by the FSB, which published the full list on its website on 10 January 2025. The list includes a mix of very different organizations, ranging from little-known regional secessionist groups to larger organizations in exile and well-respected Indigenous Peoples’ rights networks. AF and ICIPR were included on the list.

According to the Russian Criminal Code, organizing and participating in a terrorist organization is punishable with a prison sentence of up to 20 years, along with a hefty fine.

The news that the Russian government is making allegations to include two reputable Indigenous Peoples’ rights organizations on the list was met with astonishment by the international Indigenous Peoples’ rights community. A long list of Indigenous Peoples’ organizations, human rights organizations, and activists condemned^{[8], [9]} this act of criminalization of Indigenous Peoples’ rights organizations and their legitimate demands for respect of Indigenous Peoples’ rights in accordance with internationally recognized human rights standards. At the time of writing, there has been no response from the Russian government to the international community’s condemnation.

The report of the Special Rapporteur

On 13 September 2024, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, Mariana Katzarova, presented her report^[10] at the 57^th session of the Human Rights Council. Ms Katzarova was denied entry into Russia and compiled the report by speaking to political groups, activists and lawyers.

The report devotes significant space to the situation of Indigenous Peoples in Russia and paints a very bleak picture of the human rights situation in Russia in general, and the situation of Indigenous Peoples’ rights in particular. Among many issues, the report highlights the devastating impact that Russia’s war on Ukraine has had on Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples, including the fact that Indigenous Peoples and ethnic minorities have been disproportionately mobilized to fight against Ukraine. It notes that “as a result, some small-numbered groups may face extinction from war casualties”.

The report criticizes the government-imposed new requirements for Indigenous individuals to be able to access social and economic benefits mandated by law. It also draws attention to the Russian government’s efforts to silence Indigenous Peoples’ organizations that are critical of the government and calls out the cases of reprisals against organizations that cooperate with international human rights mechanisms.

In its recommendations, the Special Rapporteur calls for the Russian government to ensure respect for the rights of the Indigenous Peoples of the Russian Federation, especially their rights to lands, natural resources and cultural practices, and to eliminate all forms of discrimination and violence against them; and to end all forms of intimidation and reprisals against individuals and civil society organizations that seek to cooperate with the UN.

Russia does not recognize Ms Katzarova’s mandate and her report at the 57^th session received little attention in the government-controlled media in Russia. Since there was no formal reaction to the report from the government’s spokespeople, it seems that the decision by the Russian government was to ignore it.

Due to the sensitivity of the issues covered in this article, IWGIA prefers to keep the author(s) anonymous.

This article is part of the 39^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. The photo above is of an Indigenous activist Funa-ay Claver, a Bontok Igorot, standing alongside Indigenous youth activists and others. They are protesting against the repressive laws and human rights violations suffered through the actions and projects of the Government of the Philippines and other actors against Indigenous Peoples at President Marcos Jr’s national address on 22 July 2024 in Quezon City, Philippines. The photo was taken by Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas and is the cover of The Indigenous World 2025 where this article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2025 in full here

Notes and references

[1] Federal State Statistics Service. “Outcomes of the All-Russia Population Census 2020. Volume 5 National composition and language proficiency.” 31 December 2022. https://rosstat.gov.ru/vpn/2020/Tom5_Nacionalnyj_sostav_i_vladenie_yazykami

^[2] Library of Congress. “Ukraine: New Law Determines Legal Status of Indigenous People.” 2 August 2021. https://www.loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2021-08-02/ukraine-new-law-determines-legal-status-of-indigenous-people/

^[3] Indigenous Russia. “Councils of representatives of small-numbered peoples will work under unified rules.” 22 February 2024. https://indigenous-russia.com/archives/36302

^[4] Federal Law “On Amendments to the Federal Law ‘On Environmental Expertise’ of 25.12.2023 N 681-FZ (latest version)”. 25 December 2023. https://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_465619/

^[5] Maleva, Julia. “Regions will be able to adopt urban development projects without public hearings.” Vedomosti, 12 December 2024. https://www.vedomosti.ru/society/articles/2024/12/12/1080872-regioni-smogut-prinimat-gradostroitelnie-proekti-bez-obschestvennih-slushanii

^[6] Sitsevsky, Igor. “The number of cases of extreme river pollution in Russia has increased one and a half times.” Vedomosti, 2 February 2024. https://www.vedomosti.ru/ecology/esg/articles/2024/02/02/1018179-kolichestvo-sluchaev-ekstremalnih-zagryaznenii-rek-rossii-viroslo

^[7] Nastoyaschee Vremya. “Russia recognizes a non-existent organization – ‘Anti-Russian Separatist Movement’ – as extremist.” 7 June 2024. https://www.currenttime.tv/a/antirossiyskoe-separatistskoe-dvizhenie/32983495.html

^[8] Indigenous Russia. “The appeal to UN with regards to including 55 indigenous organizations from Russia to the list of extremists and terrorists organizations.” 30 July 2024. https://indigenous-russia.com/archives/38600

^[9] Indigenous Russia. “Statement from the Saami Council on Russia’s Recent Classification of Human Rights Organisations as Extremist.” 14 August 2024. https://indigenous-russia.com/archives/38837

^[10] United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. “A/HRC/57/59: Situation of human rights in the Russian Federation - Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation.” 13 September 2024. https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ahrc5759-situation-human-rights-russian-federation-report-special

Tags: Land rights, Human rights