Monthly Report on Human Rights Violations in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)
December 2025
Repressions
On 2 December, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by a local resident of Yakutia, citizen O., against a criminal sentence for making a donation to the Anti-Corruption Foundation.
Quote from the verdict: “Resident of Khangalassky District, citizen O., carrying out his criminal intent, on 1 December 2021, being a supporter of the non-commercial organisation ‘Anti-Corruption Foundation’* and sharing its ideas, reliably knowing that this organisation had been recognised as an extremist organisation and liquidated, with the aim of providing funds to support the activities of the said extremist organisation, using a mobile phone of the brand and model ‘iPhone XS Max’, accessed a website intended for financing an extremist organisation, where, having entered the details of his bank card, he arranged monthly money transfers to a recipient in the State of New York, United States of America, as a result of which he transferred funds on 1 November, 6 December 2021 and 1 January 2022 in the total amount of 900 roubles (equivalent to 9 euros – note).”
The Supreme Court explained that such a crime as financing the Anti-Corruption Foundation in the amount of 900 roubles (9 euros) is directed against the foundations of the constitutional order and the security of the state.
https://t.me/Torboznoe_radio/14977#
Violations of Political Rights
In December, violations of the political rights of the Yakut people continued in Yakutia
On 13 December, the Olyokminsky District Court cancelled early mayoral elections in the city of Olyokminsk, acting on the application of the acting mayor, a government official.
In 2026, a law is due to come into force in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) that abolishes the possibility of electing the mayor by residents’ vote and replaces it with election by deputies.
Earlier, the popularly elected mayor of Olyokminsk, Sergey Shcheblyakov, deliberately stepped down in order to give the population of Olyokminsk an opportunity to elect a mayor by direct vote of the residents while this is still possible under the law.
Because of the Olyokminsky District Court judges decision, his sacrifice may prove to have been in vain.
https://sakhaday.ru/news/dosrochnye-vybory-mera-olekminska-otmeneny-sudom https://t.me/Torboznoe_radio/14718#
Violations Yakutia People’s Rights to Use of Land and Resources of the Republic
The head of a town of Tommot in Aldan District of the Republic, Aleksandr Samarsky, received only a warning from the court for repeated violations of the rights of the local population.
Two local residents applied to the head of the town of Tommot for registration of a land plot located under the real estate belonging to them. They received a refusal, which was later declared unlawful by the Arbitration Court.
After that, having a court decision in their favour, the citizens again submitted an application for registration of the land. And again they received a refusal. This time the official referred to the “absence of documents substantiating the need to operate buildings on the entire area of the plot,” although the law does not provide for the existence of such documents.
The prosecutor’s office and the court agreed with the citizens’ arguments, pointing out that the law contains an exhaustive list of grounds for refusal, and also imposed a fine of 5,000 roubles on the official, which by the same decision they mitigated to a warning. He was punished very mildly for violating the procedure for granting a land plot (Part 3, Article 19.9 of the Administrative Offences Code of the Russian Federation), apparently failing to notice the official’s non-execution of the previous court decision.
However, such impunity is generally characteristic of representatives of the Russian Federation’s “dominant ethnic group” compared with the local population of the republics. All the more so because Samarsky had previously served as a special forces officer during Moscow’s conquest of independent Ichkeria and the organisation of the killing of the Chechen people in the North Caucasus.
https://taigapost.ru/news/aleksandr-samarskiy-pro-narod-tommot-i-zhizn-v-nem https://t.me/Torboznoe_radio/15064#
Meanwhile, local residents of Yakutia who catch fish in order to feed themselves have begun to be excessively fined
Back in 2023, the government, through an error, increased the fine for catching muksun fish to 70,000 roubles (more than 700 euros). In the original draft of the document, it referred to the “Ob-Irtysh muksun” species – a species under threat. However, later the word “Ob-Irtysh” disappeared from the draft, and as a result the law came to apply to all species and habitats of muksun, including in remote settlements of Yakutia, where catching fish is often the basis of a family’s food supply.
Fisheries oversight officials are becoming ever bolder when it comes to fines, while apparently no one will bear responsibility for the mistake in the law.
https://t.me/Torboznoe_radio/14882#
And against the background of extreme poverty of local population, the process of pumping out mineral resources from the territories belonging to the Yakut people stands out especially starkly
In 2025, almost 93% of all industry in Yakutia consists of mineral extraction. https://t.me/Torboznoe_radio/14716#
We remind readers that practically all taxes from subsoil users are taken by Moscow, leaving practically nothing to the local peoples.
And it is probably not superfluous to mention that among the actual owners of the subsoil-using companies one can find exclusively pro-government oligarchs, and in no single local resident.
https://t.me/Torboznoe_radio/14778#
Violations by oligarch-owned companies of occupational safety legislation
Amid growing super-profits at the expense of the lands of Yakutia, the attitudeof billionaire companies to ensuring working conditions for local workers often astonishes and is wholly inconsistent with the norms of Russia’s own legislation on occupational safety. Local Telegram channels, citing video provided by employees of the company Alrosa, which mines diamonds in Yakutia, reported conditions dangerous to life and health, as well as the impossibility of leaving the hazardous site.