Sergei is the leader of the Amur Evenki people in Russia. Currently he is serving time in prison on an allegedly falsified criminal charge against him for extortion of money from a company. The charges against Sergey were brought by the engineering company DalTeploEnergo and relate to a building project that he commissioned in 2012 from the firm. Nikiforov's lawyers presented evidence to the court proving that at the time the company claims Nikiforov extorted money, he was 500 km away from the place indicated by the company representative. The real reason for his imprisonement is allegedly because he united the people in their struggle against gold mining in traditional areas of Evenki livelihood, which was promoted by the authorities of the Amur region and "Petropavlovsk" company and because he called the Amur Evenki to boycott Putin's elections in 2012.