A protocol was drawn up against indigenous peoples’ defender Pavel Sulyandziga for participation in the activities of an “undesirable” organization

The Leninsky District Court of Vladivostok received materials from the administrative case against human rights activist and one of the founders of the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia Pavel Sulyandziga. Mediazona found information about this in the court file.

A protocol was drawn up against the defender of indigenous peoples regarding participation in the activities of an “undesirable” organization (Article 20.33 of the Administrative Code). It is unknown which organization we are talking about, and the date of the court hearing has not yet been set.

In the summer of 2023, the Ministry of Justice declared Pavel Sulyandziga a “foreign agent.” According to the department, he “made calls for action, the results of which could lead to a violation of the territorial integrity” of Russia and “lives outside” the country.

Sulyandziga is one of the founders of the Batani Foundation for the Development of Indigenous Minorities. The authorities of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug accused the employees of this fund of “artificially” creating a conflict with reindeer herders. In 2017, Sulyandziga spoke about threats from FSB officers, after which he and his family left Russia and asked for political asylum in the United States.

Now Sulyandziga regularly talks about the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East. In 2022, he spoke at the Forum of Free Peoples of Russia conference in Poland.