The political organization was founded after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It fights for indigenous peoples' right to self-determination and represents 15 national movements.

Previously, these groups sought to preserve their cultural identities, but now politics is playing a bigger role. The organization's message to its compatriots is: prepare for the collapse of the regime, so that we meet this event not as observers, but as creators.

Radjana Dugar-Deponte, president of the league, believes Russia is on the verge of disintegration, and it will be possible to create independent states after its collapse.

"We cannot say exactly when that moment will come, but we do know that it is no longer over the mountains. And we must be ready for it. That is why we are adopting plans for the way ahead, expanding international ties and strengthening cooperation between our peoples," she told Sunday's "Aktuaalne kaamera".

Syreś Boläen, chief elder of the Erzya people, said: "We do not want to live in this empire. It is falling apart not just because we want it to, but because its time has come. It is irreversible. And when we hear what is being said to us in the European countries, that we should give the Russians another chance, it can be worded in a different way. Be still in the status of slaves without will and without rights."

The First Congress of the Free Nations League is completed. The Free Nations League thanks all participants, delegates and organizers for the #FNL_Congress

‼️The captive nations by Muscovy will gain real independence and build their own independent states! pic.twitter.com/f4WFO5DQpm

— Free Nations League (@fnl_org) April 6, 2024

Head of the URALIC center Oliver Loode said: "According to the members of the Free Nations League, this is not possible on the territory of today's Russia, nor will it be possible in the future, if the federation remains in its present form. That is why there is talk of statehood, of the formation of new states on the territory of the present Russian Federation."

Change will be difficult. It took the organization two years to prepare for its first congress. They came to Estonia to receive necessary documents because the Estonian background allows for a better understanding of indigenous peoples. In Otepää, an appeal was made to the Riigikogu.

"One of them is a proposal for the Riigikogu to set up a special committee to develop an Estonian national policy on cooperation with Russian nationalist movements. This is not an entirely new idea, as the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada has just set up such a commission and it is operating," Loode said.

Dugar-DePonte said: "The final stage of decolonization has arrived. One of the last empires in Eurasia must finally fall,"

The league will be based in Helsinki, Finland but there are plans to create representative offices in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

The Free Nations League says it is a "broad anti-imperial movement that unites national, socio-political and civil organizations who advocate for sovereignty for the peoples and territories in the Russian Federation".

As of November 2022, it includes representatives from the Bashkir, Buryat, Ingrian, Cossack, Kalmyk, Moksha, Tartar, Chechen, Erzya, and Yakut movements, the organization says.

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