“I would want to come back to a free Yakutia,” Sargylana Kondakova says when asked about returning to her home region. “I would like for it to be an independent state, of course, but it is even more important for me to see that our people have a free conscience, free mind and a free soul.” A native of Russia’s Far East republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Kondakova is a co-founder of Free Yakutia Foundation, the region’s largest anti-war and indigenous rights group.