Indigenous rights defender remanded in custody in case linked to banned ‘Aborigen Forum’

A second arrest has been confirmed in the ‘Aborigen Forum’ case, according to Mediazona, citing the detainee’s support group.

Natalya Leongardt, 58, a specialist in the rights of Russia’s indigenous peoples of the North, was detained on 17 December 2025 and remanded in custody the following day by Moscow’s Basmanny District Court. Her arrest followed coordinated searches across at least ten regions, affecting no fewer than 17 individuals, including members of indigenous communities in Siberia and the Arctic.

At the time, only one arrest had been publicly reported: Darya Yegereva, a representative of the Selkup people, a small indigenous group in Western Siberia. Both women have been charged under Part 2 of Article 205.5 of the Russian Criminal Code — participation in a ‘terrorist organisation’ — and remain in custody at Moscow’s SIZO-6. Their detention has since been extended.

In the same case, a court has ordered the arrest in absentia of St Petersburg-based publicist Maxim Kuzakhmetov, the former editor-in-chief of Moskovsky Komsomolets in St Petersburg.

Court records indicate that the investigation spans eight criminal provisions, including allegations of disseminating ‘false information’ about the military, calls for separatism, involvement in an ‘extremist’ organisation, incitement of hatred, rehabilitation of Nazism, the creation of and participation in terrorist organisations, and the desecration of state symbols.

Natalya Leongardt has worked since 2005 with the Centre for the Support of Indigenous Peoples of the North, where she developed educational programmes on indigenous rights, sustainable development, and community economic engagement. She also organised training initiatives and international exchanges across northern regions. Between 2011 and 2013, she worked with the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East, representing indigenous interests in international forums. Her work has been described by supporters as open and lawful.

The ‘Aborigen Forum’, an association of experts on indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East, has been banned twice in Russia. On 7 June 2024, it was designated extremist as part of the ‘Anti-Russian Separatist Movement’ and subsequently announced its dissolution. On 22 November 2024, it was further classified as a terrorist organisation, described as a subdivision of the ‘Forum of Free States of Post-Russia’.