The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism described the RIM's relationship with the Russian government as "an adversarial symbiosis"; as long as they do not commit terrorism domestically, they are free to operate and offer training to militants and to send troops to conflicts abroad where Russia has a stake in.[35]
Western intelligence officials say they believe that the RIM has ties with and cooperates with Russian intelligence. The New York Times, citing unnamed U.S. officials, states that RIM is only partially aligned with the Russian government; the movement's leadership has been critical of the government's conduct of the Ukraine invasion, and has accused Putin of corruption. Yet, the RIM and Russian intelligence share common goals abroad, leading to a symbiotic relationship in which Russian intelligence has been able to influence the RIM's actions.[36]
The group was officially designated as a terrorist group in Canada on 3 February 2021.[39][11]
Imperial Legion paramilitary
In 2008, RIM formed its paramilitary arm, named the Imperial Legion (Russian: Имперский легион), which has been led by Denis Valliullovich Gariyev since at least 2014,[40] and has called for "young Orthodox men" to dedicate themselves to defending Novorossiya.[27]
Training
The group maintains two training facilities in Saint Petersburg, one of which is known as camp Partizan, located south of Heinäsenmaa [ru] island. Partizan runs training in urban warfare, shooting, tactical medicine, high-altitude activity, military psychology, and survival.[41][15][42]
Activities
After the war in Donbas broke out in eastern Ukraine in April 2014, the RIM began training and sending volunteer soldiers to the pro-Russian groups in the conflict in July.[16]
Some members of the Imperial Legion have worked as mercenaries in the Middle East and North Africa. On January 30, 2020, it was reported that Vladimir Skopinov, who had also previously fought in Donbas and Syria, had died in Libya—the second member of the Legion to die there.[43]
Some people affiliated with the movement have been implicated in crimes. Klaud Rommel who was affiliated with Russian orthodox fundamentalist militias has been charged with "sexual violence committed against a victim under the age of 12" for allegedly "systematically" raping a 10-year-old girl. Rommel was arrested after returning from the frontline in Ukraine and having recovered from wounds sustained there. Rommel was also known for producing media from a Russian Orthodox militant perspective and writing about the New World Order.[44][45][46]
Foreign affiliations and activities
According to the US State Department, RIM provides paramilitary-style training to extremists throughout Europe and operates two training facilities there.[17]
Finland
RIM has provided paramilitary training to Finnish neo-Nazis.[47] Finnish neo-Nazis have been recruited for the war in Ukraine by local far-right pro-Russian parties.[48][49][50][51][52][53] In July 2023 the Finnish police arrested five men in Lahti who possessed assault rifles and adhered to accelerationism and Siege and planned to ignite a race war by attacking the infrastructure, electric grid and railroads.[54] The men discussed forming a new Atomwaffen cell, and discussed assassinating Prime minister Sanna Marin. It was reported the men had at least planned training in Russia, and had met with Janus Putkonen. Later Iltalehti confirmed the men had acquired training for the use of firearms and explosives.[55] Additionally the group committed burglaries against left-wing targets.[56] RIM initially trained members of its ally Nordic Resistance Movement in Finland, and since its banning it has continued training NRM's successor groups.[57]
Germany
RIM has provided paramilitary training to German neo-Nazis.[47]
On 5 June 2020, the German magazine Focus reported that the German security services were aware of the training of German neo-Nazis in Russia. However, they could not prohibit the Germans from traveling to Saint Petersburg for legal reasons. The authorities assume that Russian President Vladimir Putin is aware of the camps and "at least tolerates them".[59][60]
In 2022, the German government verified that members of the German NPD youth organization Young Nationalists and the German neo-Nazi group "Third Way" trained in Russia in this center.[61]
Spain
In November 2019, a representative of RIM held a speech at an international conference in Madrid that was organized by the[62] neo-Nazi[63] far-right Spanish political party "National Democracy" which was attended by members of Alliance for Peace and Freedom.[62]
On 29 April 2020, the Spanish Ministry of the Interior received an intelligence report which stated that RIM was inciting its right-wing extremist contacts in Spain to commit acts of terror, such as attacking the infrastructure, transportation system and using chemical weapons against the public.[64]
The RIM—possibly acting as a proxy for Russian intelligence—is believed to have perpetrated the letter bomb terrorist campaign that targeted Spanish governmental institutions, embassies, and military and defense industry installations across Spain in late 2022. Important RIM members are known to have been present in Spain, and the RIM has fostered ties with Spanish far-right groups.[36]
Sweden
In 2008, RIM visited Sweden in order to attend Karl XII's Memorial Day in Stockholm together with the neo-Nazi Party of the Swedes. In autumn 2015 it was noted that RIM had provided support to the Swedish Resistance Movement (SMR), and that RIM's leader Vorobyev had visited SMR in Sweden.[16]
On 26 January 2020, a Russian man named Anatoly Udodov was arrested at the Arlanda airport after the police had discovered a cache of weapons belonging to him. The Swedish police had confiscated numerous firearms from him the previous summer due to his connections to SMR. Udodov was described as the representative of RIM in Sweden by Vorobyev and investigators believe he is the local recruiter for the RIM training camps. According to Swedish police Udodov is friends with a convicted terrorist, 23-year-old Viktor Melin. Melin was part of a group of Swedish neo-Nazis who went to Russia for military training, and upon returning was responsible for a string of bombings against minorities and political enemies.[65]
United States
According to multiple sources, Atomwaffen Division Russland receives training from the group. The citizens of the United States who are affiliated with the group are also believed to have taken part in it.[66][67][68][7][69][41] Later, the National Counterterrorism Center Director Christopher Miller confirmed that American neo-Nazis have had contacts with the RIM; specifically, on previous occasions, they have traveled to Russia to train with the group, however Miller described these connections as "relatively loose and informal".[70][71] The ties between Atomwaffen and RIM reach back to 2015 when Brandon Russell met with the leadership of RIM.[72] Additionally both groups adhere to James Mason's accelerationism.[1] According to the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism;
In the last decade, RIM has put considerable effort into connecting with other white supremacist, accelerationist, or ultra-Orthodox organizations abroad. Experts from the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation even speculate that after fighting in the Donbas War, RIM sought to position itself at the forefront of the transnational white supremacist movement in an ambitious networking plan called the "Last Crusade"....The "Last Crusade" proved to be a successful promotion of RIM's training camps to American accelerationists. In 2018, the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division's (AWD) leader Kaleb James Cole, accompanied by another member Aiden Bruce-Umbaugh, traveled to Russia to receive training at RIM's facilities. RIM has also provided training to other US nationals affiliated with AWD in St. Petersburg sometime around 2020. At present, the above information suggests an overlap between AWD and RIM in support for antisemitic action and militant accelerationism.[33]
Other
RIM has also provided paramilitary training to Polish neo-Nazis.[47]
^ abJohnson, Bethan; Feldman, Matthew (2021-07-21). "Siege Culture After Siege: Anatomy of a Neo-Nazi Terrorist Doctrine". International Centre for Counter-Terrorism: 1. Archived from the original on 2021-10-15. Retrieved 2021-10-15. While [ Atomwaffen Division and Russian Imperial Movement ] are serial purveyors of online extremism and often celebrate terrorism in their fora, deeper similarities extend to a shared ideological embrace of "accelerationism" and, in particular, a recently-revived doctrine advanced by the neo-Nazi ideologue, James Mason, now termed "Siege Culture"....terroristic advocacy of "Siege Culture" has a radicalising effect on right-wing extremists.
^Brian Castner (20 October 2023). "The White Power Mercenaries Fighting For the Lost Cause Around the World". Time. Wagner shares with some American militias a particular apocalyptic philosophy: accelerationism, or a desire to foment immediate radical social upheaval. Perhaps the most well-known American accelerationists are the Boogaloo Bois...Accelerationism wants to bring on the war soon, while whites are perceived as still being in a better position to win. "The Boogaloo and the Russian Imperial Legion share a common worldview", Rondeaux said.
^ abMapping Militant Organizations. "Russian Imperial Movement". Stanford University. Last modified August 2020.Archived 2022-09-04 at the Wayback Machine
"In late 2014, RIM joined a coalition of Russian-far right groups named the Russian National Front. As of 2020, this umbrella includes other ultra-nationalist organizations such as the Great Russia Party, the People's Militia in the Name of Minin and Pozharsky (NOMP), the Movement For Nationalization and De-Privatization of Strategic Resources of the Country, the Initiative Group for the Referendum "For a Responsible Power" (IGPR "ZOV"), the Russian People's Council, and the Union of Orthodox Banner Bearers."
^Marlene Laruelle, Russian Nationalism: Imaginaries, Doctrines, and Political Battlefields (Routledge, 2019), pp. 167, 202-203.
^Soufan, Ali; Sales, Nathan (5 April 2022). "One of the worst ways Putin is gaslighting the world on Ukraine". NBC News. NBC. Archived from the original on 2023-03-12. Retrieved 2022-06-08. Then there's the white supremacist group known as the Russian Imperial Movement, or RIM, which the State Department designated a terrorist organization in 2020 (an effort led by one of the authors here, Nathan Sales). With the Kremlin's tacit approval, the group operates paramilitary camps near St. Petersburg in which neo-Nazis and white supremacists from across Europe are trained in terrorist tactics.
^White, Daniel J., Jr. (16 August 2024). Vanguard of a White Empire: Rusich, the Russian Imperial Movement, and Russia's War of Terror (Thesis). Center for Homeland Defense and Security. hdl:10945/72291. RIM has developed supportive relationships with other transnational violent extremist groups grounded in mutual aid and training. The closest of these connections are with...the Russian neo-Nazi organization Rusich, and the transnational accelerationist neo-Nazi organization Atomwaffen Division...Rusich and the Russian Imperial Movement [have] U.S. nationals sympathetic to their cause [like] far-right organizer Matthew Heimbach and U.S. cells of the extremist Atomwaffen Division.{{cite thesis}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^"Putin's Stealth Mobilization". New America (organization). 16 March 2024. We also observed significant overlap between members of [RIM and Rusich] and well-known transnational White supremacist organization Atomwaffen Division...adherents of the Russian Imperial Movement, Rusich and related identitarian paramilitary groups such as...Atomwaffen Division
^"Russia sends neo-nazi sabotage group to 'strengthen' and spy on Finnish border". Contando Estrelas. 10 September 2024. Some sources link the DSHRG "Rusich" with an international neo-nazi and Satanic network, the Order of the Nine Angles (ONA), accused of terrorist practices, child abuse and human sacrifice, and which in Russia also has one of its branches in the so-called Ave Satan Legion.
^"Some 20 Finns fought against Ukraine in Donbas, facing no consequences in Finland – media". Euromaidan Press. 13 May 2024. "Johan Backman says that he continues to help Finns who have gone to Eastern Ukraine to fight. He does not feel responsible for the people he recruits." Johan Bäckman is an important central figure for Finnish fighters, who had organized their travel from Finland to the Donbas and engaged them in illegal activities there. Janus Kostia Putkonen arrived in Donbas from Moscow via Rostov, southern Russia, in March 2015.
^Spencer Beswick (6 January 2023). "The Jan. 6 coup blared an alarm about rising fascism. Will we hear it?". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 7 January 2023. Retrieved 6 January 2023. With Trump out of office, a worrying number of fascist groups today are repeating the revolutionary turn of the 1980s, from neo-Nazis like the Atomwaffen Division (also known as the National Socialist Resistance Front), which has sought military training with both the Ukrainian Azov Battalion and the Russian Imperial Movement
^"We Applied to Join a Neo-Nazi Group Fighting in Ukraine". Unicorn Riot. 25 December 2022. Archived from the original on 24 December 2022. There has been an AWD cell in Russia since 2020 and it has close relations with the paramilitary, radical right group known as the Russian Imperial Movement. Many of the members of AWD have received military training from the latter.
^"V 'denacifikacijo' Ukrajine tudi ruski neonacisti (Russian neo-Nazis are also involved in the 'denazification' of Ukraine)". 24ur.com. 14 October 2022. Archived from the original on 14 October 2022. Retrieved 14 October 2022. Among those listed, the Atomwaffen Division, founded in the USA, which is closely connected to both Russian and Ukrainian ultra-right groups, is certainly still operating illegally. In doing so, it cooperates with the Azov battalion, which is banned on the territory of Russia, and the Russian imperialist movement, which the US State Department estimates enables the training of white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Europe.
^"Neo-Nazi organizations and radicals as a tool of influence in Scandinavia". 9 February 2023. Archived from the original on 8 February 2023. Retrieved 9 February 2023. Meanwhile, Canada and the U.S. recognized the RIM as a terrorist organization, which is suspected of being involved in mailing improvised explosive devices in late 2022. Besides, two RIM members were killed in Libya, which is validly suggests their affiliation with the GRU. In 2022, organization members took part in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The RIM is also reported to have a relationship with the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division's Russian affiliate. We see common features in the structure and functioning of Atomwaffen Division and the NRM, which suggests common sources of their organizational development.