https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Imperial_Movement
The Russian Imperial Movement (Русское имперское движениe) is a Russian far-right organisation involved in the Ukraine conflict, it controls its own (Pro-Russia) Volunteer Battallion, the Russian Imperial Legion, and has also provided aid to far right groups from outside Russia including Young Nationalists (Germany), Dritte Weg (Germany), The Base (USA), the Atomwaffen Division (USA) and the (now disbanded) Traditionalist Worker Party (USA):
The “ Spiegel ” recently reported, citing an internal paper from the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), that the Russian Imperial Legion is also fighting against Ukraine in the current war. For this purpose, fighters with military experience and graduates of the paramilitary training center in St. Petersburg were recruited.
It maybe plausible that Nazzaro had some online interactions with Matthew Heimbach (Traditionalist Worker Party; TWP), who hosted Stanislav Shevchuk in 2017, or Atomwaffen Division (AWD) leaders who were beginning to forge ties with RIM (in 2018 two AWD members undertook their training in Russia) but such links are speculative.
Even if we can accept that, until just prior to the Fall of 2017 before Nazzaro left for Russia, he did not have any ties to RIM and/or Russian intelligence (being cultivated as an asset), it is highly improbable that he could not have material support by July 2018 to:
• Move with his Russian wife and daughters to St. Petersburg, Russia • Gain Russian citizenship and a passport • Live in an upscale central St. Petersburg property purchased in his wife’s name • End up in the same city where the Royal Imperial Movement (RIM) is located and ideologically align with their ‘hybrid warfare’ objectives • Found The Base, a neo-Nazi network/group focused on engaging in terrorist acts in the U.S.
Also, after The Base was founded, we know that in 2019 it shared some members with the Atomwaffen Division (AWD). That group’s cells began appearing in the U.S. in late 2015 and early 2016 and, by the time it was sharing members, it already had some direct interactions with the RIM.
- https://www.cofutures.net/post/rinaldo-nazzaro-leader-of-the-neo-nazi-terrorist-group-the-base-probable-linkages-to-rim (PDF Page 12)
The Movement advertises its services in military training through its “Partisan Center”, which they advertise on social media, they offer courses such as “surviving artillery or air attack”, “dive in AK”, “radio communication”, “tactical medicine” and “psychology of combat stress”.
[In 2020 the group was designated as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” organisation by the US State Department](https://2017-2021.state.gov/united-states-designates-russian-imperial-movement-and-leaders-as-global-terrorists/index.html, https://2017-2021.state.gov/designation-of-the-russian-imperial-movement/index.html) after 2 former members of the Nordic Resistance Movement (Nordic Countries) trained at the Partisan Centre before being arrested on terror charges on Sweden 1.
The group is said to have a relationship with the Kremlin, while the Russian government doesn’t directly support RIM they do allow the group to operate:
“They are not legally sanctioned and cannot be really considered Kremlin proxies either,” said Michael Carpenter, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia and Eurasia. “It’s more of an adversarial symbiosis. Under the watchful eye of the Russian secret services, many of these extremist groups are given a great deal of latitude to interact with neo-Nazi and far-right extremist groups in the West—but only as long as they don’t cause too much trouble in Russia.”
Interesting Links
https://vk.com/rus_imperia https://vk.com/partizan_kurs
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