Expert webinar was organized by ADC Memorial in partnership with the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia (ICIPR).

Recently, activists and human rights defenders working on the rights of Indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, climate change, and environmental rights have faced unprecedented repression in Russia. Dozens of activists across the country were interrogated and searched, many were forced to emigrate urgently, the activists Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt have been under arrest for several months. These persecutions are related to the recognition of dozens of organizations and groups with ethnic, Indigenous, and regional agendas as “extremist” and “terrorist” in 2024-25. Following the same scheme, on April 9, 2026, the Russian Supreme Court recognized the Memorial movement as “extremist”, thus criminalizing all “Memorials” and all their supporters. In these circumstances, activists and human rights defenders must be prepared for the challenges and risks targeting their physical and digital security.

• Marry Michurova, Saami Indigenous people activist, shared her own experience of being searched and interrogated during the mass  repressions in December 2025 in Russia
• Dima Starover, human rights defender, expert on security issues explained how to act in a crisis situation, how to assess risks properly, and how to prepare for an emergency evacuation
• Timofei Dubrovskih, expert in the field of digital security, member of the Council of the Human Rights Center Memorial, researcher at RKS.Global spoke about the digital methods of surveillance and phishing attacks used by Russian security services, and ways to protect against them
• Natalia Sineaeva, expert from NEVER AGAIN Association, spoke about International solidarity campaigns as a tool to protect activists and human rights defenders from repression

Moderator: Olga Abramenko, ADC Memorial

You can watch the recording of the webinar (with Russian audio and English subtitles)