[2] The group's climax in popularity came in April of 2005 when Mari El hosted the tenth meeting of the World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples.

The conference was mostly used as a propaganda tool for the Republic's government and was highly protested by Mari Ushem as "hijacked".

At the conference, the Republic’s then President, Leonid Markelov, a Russian from Moscow, denied that the Maris were nationalistic or needed further legal protection.

He was compared to Joseph Stalin and Alexander Lukashenko due to his crackdown and control of the press and his harassment of opposition, namely the Mari Ushem.

Markelov would push Mari Ushem to largely become an underground organization, with every rally and meeting the group attempted to hold facing a strong police presence to disperse them.