Russia’s Supreme Court designated 172 indigenous groups arsenic “terrorist” organizations, accusing them of lobbying for secession and supporting Ukraine’s military, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced Friday.
Authorities claimed these groups are “structural subdivisions” of the Free Nations of PostRussia Forum, a Poland-based enactment founded successful 2022. The forum describes itself arsenic a level advocating for the decolonization and fragmentation of Russia into 41 autarkic states.
“The enactment is led by self-proclaimed leaders of national-separatist movements who person fled abroad,” the prosecutor’s bureau said, alleging that their extremity is to interruption Russia into smaller states nether the power of “unfriendly countries.”
Last year, the Prosecutor General’s Office labeled the Free Nations of PostRussia Forum an “undesirable organization,” citing threats to Russia’s law bid and security. This designation criminalizes immoderate enactment with the forum.
The Supreme Court was scheduled to reappraisal the petition to classify the forum arsenic a “terrorist organization” connected Nov. 14.
Among the groups listed successful Friday’s ruling are the Baltic Republican Party, the Ingria question and the Free Yakutia Foundation — 3 organizations already labeled “extremist” by Russia’s Justice Ministry earlier this year.
Sargylana Kondakova, co-founder of the Free Yakutia Foundation, an Indigenous rights radical from the republic of Sakha (Yakutia), said her enactment is not a portion of the Free Nations of PostRussia Forum and rejected the Russian authorities’ description of its activities.
“This determination is defamation successful its purest form,” Kondakova told The Moscow Times, referring to Friday’s “terrorist” designation. “We bash not presumption ourselves arsenic a nationalist separatist movement, we bash not person a extremity of partitioning the Russian Federation into aggregate states.”
“We are an autarkic enactment that focuses connected advocating for the rights of Indigenous radical surviving successful the republic of Sakha and combatting propaganda wrong the republic,” she added. “We bash see ourselves a decolonial question due to the fact that decolonizing Russia is simply a prerequisite for aboriginal peace.”
In June, the Supreme Court banned a vaguely defined “anti-Russian separatist movement” arsenic “extremist,” though rights groups person noted the lack of immoderate formally established enactment by that name.
Russia’s Justice Ministry later labeled 54 Indigenous groups and the U.S.-based Free Russia Foundation arsenic “extremist” organizations.
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