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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Russian Imperial Movement.md
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@ -14,14 +14,14 @@ created: 2026-05-22
updated: 2026-09-23
start: 2002
location: "St. Petersburg, Russia"
summary: "Russian Imperial Movement is a St. Petersburg-based ultranationalist paramilitary organization, designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity by the U.S. State Department in April 2020, that operated the Partizan training camp and provided weapons and explosives training to Western neo-Nazis including members of Atomwaffen Division."
summary: "St. Petersburg ultranationalist paramilitary group, designated a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in April 2020, whose Partizan camp trained Swedish and American neo-Nazis."
---
Russian Imperial Movement (RIM, in Russian: Ruskoye Imperatorskoe Dvizhenie) is a [[Russia|Russian]] ultranationalist and white supremacist paramilitary organization headquartered in [[St. Petersburg]]. It was founded in approximately 2002 and operates an ideology combining Orthodox Christian monarchism, Russian imperial nationalism, and white supremacist pan-Europeanism. Its paramilitary wing, the [[Imperial Legion]], runs a training program called [[Partizan]] that has provided weapons handling, explosives, and tactical instruction to neo-Nazis from Sweden, Germany, the United States, and Finland. On April 7, 2020, the [[U.S. Department of State]] designated RIM and three of its leaders as [[Specially Designated Global Terrorist]] (SDGT) entities under [[Executive Order 13224]], the first time the United States had ever applied a terrorist designation to a white supremacist organization.[^1]
Russian Imperial Movement (RIM, in Russian: Ruskoye Imperatorskoe Dvizhenie) is a [[Russia|Russian]] ultranationalist and white supremacist paramilitary organization headquartered in [[St. Petersburg]]. It was founded in approximately 2002 and operates an ideology combining Orthodox Christian monarchism, Russian imperial nationalism, and white supremacist pan-Europeanism. Its paramilitary wing, the [[Imperial Legion]], runs a training program called [[Partizan]] that has provided weapons handling, explosives, and tactical instruction to neo-Nazis from Sweden, Germany, the [[United States]], and Finland. On April 7, 2020, the [[U.S. Department of State]] designated RIM and three of its leaders as [[Specially Designated Global Terrorist]] (SDGT) entities under [[Executive Order 13224]], the first time the United States had ever applied a terrorist designation to a white supremacist organization.[^1]
### Organization and Leadership
RIM was founded by [[Stanislav Anatolyevich Vorobyev]], who serves as its overall leader. The organization's paramilitary infrastructure was built by [[Denis Valiullovich Gariev]] (also transliterated as "Gariyev"), who created the Imperial Legion in 2008 and directs it as its head. [[Nikolay Nikolayevich Trushchalov]] serves as RIM's coordinator for external relations, managing recruitment of and networking with foreign white supremacist organizations. All three were designated SDGTs in the April 2020 State Department action alongside the organization itself.[^1]
RIM was founded by [[Stanislav Anatolyevich Vorobyev]], who serves as its overall leader. The organization's paramilitary infrastructure was built by [[Denis Valiullovich Gariev]] (also transliterated as "Gariyev"), who created the Imperial Legion in 2008 and directs it as its head. [[Nikolay Nikolayevich Trushchalov]] serves as RIM's coordinator for external relations, managing recruitment of and networking with foreign white supremacist organizations. All three were designated SDGTs in the April 2020 [[State Department]] action alongside the organization itself.[^1]
The organization describes its aims as re-establishing Russia as a "mono-ethnic state" and restoring the Russian empire, preferably under a restored Romanov dynasty. Although RIM thus formally opposes Putin's government as insufficiently monarchist, the organization has been allowed to operate freely in Russia, to maintain paramilitary training facilities, and to recruit internationally, without Russian government interference. This tolerance is what a 2026 peer-reviewed case study (published in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, drawing on eleven expert interviews and three years of open-source collection) describes as "tacit home-state toleration" that allowed paramilitary infrastructure to function as an international training hub.[^2]
@ -47,6 +47,8 @@ Bruce-Umbaugh was arrested and charged in the Northern District of Texas. He ple
Cole was separately prosecuted in the [[Western District of Washington]] (case 2:20-cr-00032) for the [[Operation Erste Saule]] harassment campaign. He was convicted on five counts including civil rights conspiracy and sentenced to 84 months. The Russia trip appeared in government submissions in his case as background on AWD's transnational connections.[^6]
On May 31, 2020, Atomwaffen Division announced a new branch in Russia and released Russian translations of its ideological texts. In June 2020 the Argentine outlet *Infobae* reported that members of this Russian affiliate had trained with RIM in St. Petersburg around 2020; the Stanford Mapping Militants Project recorded the report as not independently confirmed.[^8]
### German Training Operations
In 2020, RIM provided training at Partizan to members of the youth wings of two German far-right political parties: the [[National Democratic Party of Germany]] (NPD) and [[Der dritte Weg]] (The Third Path). Participants received instruction in firearms, explosives, and close combat. The training was documented by German investigative reporting and confirmed by [[Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty]]. Several graduates of the Partizan training, including German and Finnish participants, subsequently joined [[Russian-backed separatist militias]] fighting in eastern Ukraine.[^3]
@ -55,11 +57,11 @@ In 2020, RIM provided training at Partizan to members of the youth wings of two
On April 7, 2020, the State Department designated RIM, Vorobyev, Gariev, and Trushchalov as SDGTs under Executive Order 13224. This was the first white supremacist terrorist designation in U.S. history. Counterterrorism Coordinator [[Ambassador Nathan Sales]] explained at a press briefing that the designation was grounded in RIM providing training "for acts of terrorism" specifically through Partizan, citing the Gothenburg bombings as the documented case. The designation triggers asset-blocking and transactional prohibitions under U.S. law for anyone who deals with these individuals or the organization.[^1]
On June 15, 2022, the [[U.S. Treasury Department]]'s [[Office of Foreign Assets Control]] (OFAC) designated two additional supporters of RIM as SDGTs, pursuant to Executive Order 13224. Treasury's press release (jy0817) documented this supplemental designation. The identity of the two individuals named in the June 2022 action was not reproduced in available open-source summaries consulted for this entry; the OFAC SDN list entry and Treasury press release contain the authoritative names.[^8]
On June 15, 2022, the [[U.S. Treasury Department]]'s [[Office of Foreign Assets Control]] (OFAC) designated two additional supporters of RIM as SDGTs, pursuant to Executive Order 13224. Treasury's press release (jy0817) documented this supplemental designation. The identity of the two individuals named in the June 2022 action was not reproduced in available open-source summaries consulted for this entry; the OFAC SDN list entry and Treasury press release contain the authoritative names.[^9]
### UK Proscription
The [[United Kingdom]] proscribed RIM as a terrorist organization in 2025, following a multi-year debate in which parliamentary questions in the Commons had raised the matter. [[Searchlight Magazine]] reported on the UK Home Office proscription order, which extended to RIM the same legal framework applied to other proscribed organizations under the [[Terrorism Act 2000]]. The exact Statutory Instrument number and date of the UK proscription are not confirmed in materials reviewed for this entry; see open thread in _NOTES.md.[^9]
The [[United Kingdom]] proscribed RIM as a terrorist organization in 2025, following a multi-year debate in which parliamentary questions in the Commons had raised the matter. [[Searchlight Magazine]] reported on the UK Home Office proscription order, which extended to RIM the same legal framework applied to other proscribed organizations under the [[Terrorism Act 2000]]. The exact Statutory Instrument number and date of the UK proscription are not confirmed in materials reviewed for this entry; see open thread in _NOTES.md.[^10]
### Russian State Tolerance and the Non-Prosecution Pattern
@ -69,7 +71,7 @@ First, RIM operated Partizan as an international training hub for years while Ru
Second, RIM participated in the conflict in the Donbas by sending its Imperial Legion volunteer fighters to eastern Ukraine in 2014, fighting alongside Russian-backed separatists. This participation was not prosecuted.
Third, RIM is based in St. Petersburg, where [[Rinaldo Nazzaro]] (The Base founder) also relocated in 2017-2018. The co-location of two designated terrorist organizations with Western recruitment mandates in the same city, with neither facing Russian prosecution, describes an environment of consistent state tolerance.
Third, RIM is based in St. Petersburg, where [[Rinaldo Nazzaro]] ([[The Base]] founder) also relocated in 2017-2018. The co-location of two designated terrorist organizations with Western recruitment mandates in the same city, with neither facing Russian prosecution, describes an environment of consistent state tolerance.
The 2026 peer-reviewed article in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism concludes that RIM's transnational expansion was enabled by the convergence of permissive conflict arenas, shared ideology as a substitute for ethnic kinship in recruiting, and "tacit home-state toleration" enabling Partizan to function as an international terrorism-training hub. The article stops short of asserting direct state direction.[^2]
@ -82,5 +84,6 @@ The 2026 peer-reviewed article in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism concludes th
[^5]: BuzzFeed News (Lester Feder). "These Swedish Nazis Trained In Russia Before Bombing A Center For Asylum Seekers." https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/lesterfeder/these-swedish-nazis-trained-in-russia; The Daily Beast. "Russian Extremists Are Training Right-Wing Terrorists From Western Europe." https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-extremists-are-training-right-wing-terrorists-from-western-europe/
[^6]: Malcontent News. "Washington's Defunct Atomwaffen Division had Deep Ties to the Terrorist Org, Russia Imperialist Movement." July 4, 2022. https://malcontentment.com/washingtons-defunct-atomwaffen-division-had-deep-ties-to-the-terrorist-org-russia-imperialist-movement/; Cipher Brief. "Examining Atomwaffen Division's Transnational Linkages." https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column_article/examining-atomwaffen-divisions-transnational-linkages
[^7]: GovInfo. USA v. Bruce-Umbaugh, Case 5:19-cr-00130 (N.D. Tex.). https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCOURTS-txnd-5_19-cr-00130/USCOURTS-txnd-5_19-cr-00130-0
[^8]: U.S. Department of the Treasury, OFAC. "U.S. Sanctions Members of Russian Violent Extremist Group." Press release jy0817. June 15, 2022. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0817; OFAC Counter Terrorism Designations, April 6, 2020 action: https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20200406
[^9]: Searchlight Magazine. "UK bans far-right Russian terror group." July 2025. https://searchlightmagazine.com/2025/07/uk-bans-far-right-russian-terror-group/
[^8]: Mapping Militants Project, Stanford University, "Russian Imperial Movement." https://mappingmilitants.org/profiles/russian-imperial-movement
[^9]: U.S. Department of the Treasury, OFAC. "U.S. Sanctions Members of Russian Violent Extremist Group." Press release jy0817. June 15, 2022. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0817; OFAC Counter Terrorism Designations, April 6, 2020 action: https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20200406
[^10]: Searchlight Magazine. "UK bans far-right Russian terror group." July 2025. https://searchlightmagazine.com/2025/07/uk-bans-far-right-russian-terror-group/