Russian imperial movement

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The Russian Imperial Movement ( Russian Русское Имперское Движение Russkoye Imperskoye Dwischenije ) or Russian Imperial Movement is a monarchist and ultra-nationalist revisionist organization in Russia that recruits right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis and trains them in paramilitary camps for fighting. The organization was founded in 2002 by Stanislav Vorobjew in Saint Petersburg and has a branch in Moscow under the leadership of Pavel Vasilyev.

Positions

According to its self-portrayal, the Russian Imperial Movement is pursuing the rebuilding of Tsarism and the Russian Empire by recapturing "lost territories" in the post-Soviet space . The group draws its slogan from an alleged statement by Archpriest Johannes von Kronstadt : “In hell there is democracy. Heaven is a kingdom. ”The Russian imperial movement is part of a larger coalition of right-wing extremist, monarchist - nationalist groups in Russia, which is constituted under the name Russkije (“ Russians ”) and which gathers annually for the Russian March . These include the Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI), the Slavyanskaya Sila ("Slavic Force") as the successor organization to the Slavic Union , the National Socialist Initiative , Pamjat and offshoot of the Federation of the Russian People . This coalition represents a broad spectrum of right-wing ideology. Some groups in the Russkije movement advocate Nazi ideas while others oppose immigrants. What these groups have in common, however, is the ideological link to the anti-Semitism of the Black Hundred and imperialist ideas. The Russian imperial movement is calling for an even tougher Russian foreign policy, has recruited fighters for the Russian occupation of eastern Ukraine as part of the Ukraine war and denies the Ukrainian nation the right to exist.

Politically, the Russian imperial movement is affiliated with the Rodina party and, together with Rodina, has organized a conference in Saint Petersburg that opposes “ liberalism , multiculturalism and tolerance ”.

Networking and Paramilitary Activity

The paramilitary arm of the Russian Reich Movement is called Reichslegion and was founded in 2008. The organization has two training camps where it trains Russian and foreign extremists as part of the Partisan training program. The group's founder, Stanislav Vorobiev, claimed that he and other members of the Russian Imperial Movement were involved in the annexation of Crimea and the fighting in the war in Ukraine on the Russian side.

In 2008 members of the Russian Imperial Movement met with representatives of the Svenskarnas parti . The Russian Imperial Movement maintains contacts with the Nordic Resistance Movement , a group of neo-Nazists in Scandinavia. In 2016 supporters of the Nordic resistance movement bombed a bar and two homes for asylum seekers . Shortly before the attack, the men had traveled to Russia to train in the partisan program of the Reich Legion. According to the prosecutor, the paramilitary training in Russia was the decisive step in the radicalization of the perpetrators: there they learned how to make bombs. In early 2020, the alleged recruiter of the Russian Imperial Movement was arrested in Stockholm . The group had previously described the man as representing the movement in Sweden. The arrest came after Swedish police discovered a secret arsenal in the man's home.

Outside Scandinavia, the Russian Imperial Movement maintains contacts with the monarchist party Black-Yellow Alliance in Austria. The founder and leader of the Russian Imperial Movement , together with representatives of the Alliance for Peace and Freedom, took part in a conference in Madrid organized by the right-wing extremist Democracia Nacional . In April 2020, the Spanish Ministry of the Interior received information from the secret service that the Russian imperial movement was inciting right-wing extremists in Spain to carry out attacks on the country's infrastructure and transport system and to further exacerbate the already tense situation due to the corona virus .

In May 2018, representatives of the Russian imperial movement visited a European congress organized by the Young Nationalists of Saxony in Riesa . Other participants in the congress included the National Socialist Party Bulgarian National Union and Srpska Akcija (“Serbian Union”). Activists of the Russian organization took part in an event organized by the party Dierechte in Dortmund in November 2017 .

In June 2020, the news magazine Focus reported , citing security circles, that the organization is also training German right-wing extremists for fighting. The paramilitary training have several members of the Protection of the Constitution observed NPD -Jugendorganisation Young nationalists and right-wing extremist party , the III. Way completed. The participants had been trained in handling weapons and explosives as well as in close military combat.

Sanctions

In April 2020, the United States classified the Russian Imperial Movement as a foreign terrorist organization and put its three leaders on the list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons .

German security authorities are informed about the training of right-wing extremists in Russia. Several times, German authorities spoke in vain with the liaison officers of the Russian domestic secret service FSB about the training camp for sabotage. German security officials assume that the Russian government will at least tolerate the paramilitary training camps.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Putin's rifle aid: Russian extremists train German neo-Nazis in secret camp . In: Focus , June 6, 2020.
  2. ^ Andrew Roth: A right-wing militia trains Russians to fight the next war - with or without Putin . In: Washington Post , January 2, 2017.
  3. ↑ German neo-Nazis trained at Russian camps: report . In: Deutsche Welle , June 5, 2020.
  4. ↑ a b c John Hudson: US labels a white supremacist group 'terrorist' for the first time . In: Washington Post , April 6, 2020.
  5. ↑ a b c d Miroslav Mareš, Martin Laryš, Jan Holzer: Militant Right-Wing Extremism in Putin's Russia: Legacies, Forms and Threats . Routledge 2019, pp. 395, 403ff.
  6. ↑ a b c d e Pål Kolstǿ and Helge Blakkisrud: New Russian Nationalism: Imperialism, Ethnicity and Authoritarianism 2000-2015 . Edinburgh University Press 2016, pp. 91f.
  7. ↑ a b c NATO: Främlingshatet kan gödas av främmande makt . In: Dagens Nyheter , October 27, 2015.
  8. ↑ a b c d e f Marlene Laruelle: Russian Nationalism: Imaginaries, Doctrines, and Political Battlefields . Routledge 2019, pp. 167, 202f.
  9. ^ Richard Arnold and Andreas Umland: The Radical Right in Post-Soviet Russia . In: Jens Rydgren (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of the Radical Right. Oxford University Press 2018, p. 593 . doi: 10.1093 / oxfordhb / 9780190274559.013.29
  10. ↑ Michael Carpenter: Russia Is Co-opting Angry Young Men . In: The Atlantic , August 29, 2018.
  11. ^ Confronting Russia's Role in Transnational White Supremacist Extremism . Just Security, February 6, 2020.
  12. ↑ Malcolm Nance: The Plot to Destroy Democracy . Hachette Book Group 2018, p. 105.
  13. ↑ a b These Swedish Nazis Trained In Russia Before Bombing A Center For Asylum Seekers. In: BuzzFeed News , July 22, 2017.
    White Russians: Russian Extremists Are Training Right-Wing Terrorists From Western Europe. In: The Daily Beast , February 8, 2017.
  14. ↑ "" За Рассею пострадать хочу ". Почему в Швеции судят националиста из СССР “ . In: BBC News , February 21, 2020.
  15. ^ Robyn Dixon: Inside white-supremacist Russian Imperial Movement, designated foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department . In: Washington Post , April 13, 2020.
  16. ↑ José María Olmo: Un informe de Interior alerta de planes para esparcir el coronavirus y atacar torres de 5G . In: El Confidencial , April 29, 2020.
  17. ^ A b c d Russian imperial movement: German right-wing extremists networked in Russia . In: Zeit Online , June 5, 2020.
  18. ↑ Racists as a threat for the first time: USA puts Russian neo-Nazis on terrorist list . In: N-tv , April 6, 2020.
    Designation of the Russian Imperial Movement . United States Department of State, April 6, 2020.