Pavel Sulyandziga, an Indigenous activist and member of the Udege people of Russia’s far eastern region, arrived in the United States in 2017 to seek political asylum.
Sulyandziga joined his wife and their five children, who were already living in Maine. They left following numerous threats to Sulyandziga’s personal safety, as well as to his family members and colleagues, because of his political activism.
Sulyandziga’s request for political asylum in the U.S. is still pending, part of a large backlog of asylum cases before immigration judges.
Today, however, Sulyandziga, 61, and his family members continue to be harassed by the Russian government.
Sulyandziga is one of among 260,000 people who are recognized as Indigenous and who are from Russia. Indigenous peoples living in Russia have long fought for recognition of their rights as native peoples and to protect their traditional territory, which is often located in areas that are used for natural resource extraction, such as mining.
But recent research shows that Indigenous activists are fleeing Russia because of growing repression. Sometimes, they are being charged with working on behalf of foreign governments, or they are facing false accusations of corruption.
Beyond repression at home, the Russian government is increasingly trying to silence activists like Sulyandziga even after they leave Russia.
This kind of harassment is called transnational repression, and it means that Indigenous activists are vulnerable in exile as well as at home.
Pavel Sulyandziga, an Indigenous activist and member of the Udege people of Russia’s far eastern region, arrived in the United States in 2017 to seek political asylum.
Sulyandziga joined his wife and their five children, who were already living in Maine. They left following numerous threats to Sulyandziga’s personal safety, as well as to his family members and colleagues, because of his political activism.
Sulyandziga’s request for political asylum in the U.S. is still pending, part of a large backlog of asylum cases before immigration judges.
Today, however, Sulyandziga, 61, and his family members continue to be harassed by the Russian government.
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