On December 17, 2025, an international conference titled “The Circassian Genocide in the Context of History and Contemporary Politics” was held in the Constitutional Hall of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. The fact that the event took place in the parliament of an EU member state was presented by speakers as a political rebuke to Russian imperialism and a further challenge to the long-standing denial of the genocide of the Circassian people. The Circassian national movement continues to gain international visibility, and the conference was framed as a sign that the era of silence is coming to an end.
The Free Nations League was represented by a full delegation, underscoring its role as a coordination hub for national movements of Indigenous peoples whose territories are under Russian control. Participants included the League’s president, Inyazor of the Erzya people, Syres Bolyaen; Rustam Khuazhev, a representative of the Circassian national liberation movement and a member of the League’s Presidium; as well as Aida Abdrakhmanova (Tatar), Raisa Zubareva (Sakha), and Dorzho Dugarov (Buryat). Their remarks directly challenged what they described as Europe’s political inertia and the international community’s complacency.
Khuazhev said the Circassian genocide is a fact recognized in international law, arguing that Russia’s refusal to acknowledge it and restore victims’ rights suggests an intention to perpetuate the crime. He described Russia’s current policy as ethnocide—assimilation and the destruction of historical memory—masked by imperial propaganda. “Empires do not reform. They are either dismantled, or they kill again,” he said.
League President Syres Bolyaen offered an even starker assessment, linking the Circassian genocide to what he called the erosion of the global order. He argued that powerful states are again dividing the world and bargaining with dictatorships, while Europe hides behind illusions of security. “Any Russia—with Putin or without him—remains an empire built on expansion, violence, and genocides. There has never been a democratic Russia, nor will there be,” he said, adding that the only real safeguard against new genocides and deportations of Indigenous peoples is Russia’s disintegration and the emergence of new independent states.
The conference in the Lithuanian Seimas sent a clear political signal, participants argued: only decolonization and the breakup of imperial structures can protect Indigenous nations from a repetition of past tragedies.
