Isolated and impacted by nickel mining: Indigenous communities in Russia search for avenues of justice, 01 June 2022

...[I]n January 2022, Indigenous residents of Ust-Avam had met with a major transnational buyer from Nornickel to tell them about the impacts of Nornickel’s spill on their traditional livelihoods. As a result of the spill, families in Ust-Avam can no longer rely on traditional fisheries for food. After the spill, Nornickel publicized a major investment of 2 billion rubles in Indigenous Peoples’ programs and the creation of a Coordination Council to oversee the program. However, community members report that in order to receive financial support from the program, they must agree to say that Nornickel’s fuel spill did not impact their fisheries, violating the community’s right to freely consent to the company’s operations. The community in Ust-Avam was unwilling to lie, and as a result, the people of Ust-Avam have not received the compensation that they requested...