Discussion titled “Voices of Indigenous Peoples against Russia’s Repression” took place 3 March,  in the European Parliament in Brussels. The event was organized the Anti-Discrimination Centre Memorial–Brussels together with the MEP (Lithuania) Rasa Juknevičienė.

Representatives of indigenous movements were speaking about repressions and persecutions by Russian authorities, the speakers were human rights defender and Chair of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center (Kyiv) Eskender Bariev, the activist of Sámi Indigenous People and member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) Valentina Sovkina and  journalist from Bashkortostan Ruslan Valiev.

In recent years — since the beginning of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the occupation of Crimea — the Russian Federation has moved from systemic oppression of Indigenous peoples to widespread repression of activists and all those who raise their voices against violations of the rights to identity, religion, territory, environment, and freedom of expression.

A video of the discussion (with simultaneous interpretation into English)