disinfozone/The_Info_Web
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull requests Projects Releases Packages Wiki Activity Actions
The_Info_Web/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/Maniac Murder Cult.md

11 KiB
Raw Blame History

category tags start location created updated summary
Extremism & Violent Networks
MKY
NeoNazi
Accelerationism
Ukraine
NVE
TerroristOrganization
TheComNetwork
SaintsCulture
2017 Dnipro, Ukraine (online, global) 2026-05-21 2026-10-04 Maniac Murder Cult (MKY) is a Ukrainian-founded neo-Nazi accelerationist network rewarding escalating violence through 'Murder Points,' proscribed by the UK and Canada in 2025; its leader Michail Chkhikvishvili received 15 years in 2026.

Maniac Murder Cult (also known as MKY, MKU, MMC, Maniacs Murder Cult, and Maniacs: Cult of Killing) is a neo-Nazi accelerationist organization founded in Dnipro, Ukraine, approximately 2017-2018 by Yegor Krasnov ("Maniac") when he was approximately 16 years old. It combines explicit national socialism, theistic Satanism, and extreme misanthropy into an ideology it calls Racial Holy War (Racial Holy War), and it implements a tiered "Murder Points" reward system that incentivizes escalating real-world violence as a form of organizational advancement. The group's self-declared terrorist identity and its encouragement of livestreamed attacks distinguishes it analytically from purely nihilistic networks within The Com ecosystem. The UK proscribed MKY as a terrorist organization on July 2, 2025; Canada listed it alongside 764 Network and Terrorgram Collective on December 10, 2025.1

Origins in Dnipro

The Haters Handbook (third edition, 2023) says Krasnov founded the group after being pushed out of an ultra-nationalist group, and claims MKY has been active since 2017.2 Kommersant, citing Federal Security Service information, wrote in 2023 that he had belonged to several neo-Nazi organizations in Ukraine but did not fit in.3 The group's first branded content (short videos of street attacks) appeared on the Russian imageboard 2chan in 2018, then migrated to VKontakte and Telegram in 2019.1

Police in Dnipro detained Krasnov in January 2020 after a knife attack on the city embankment was filmed and posted online;4 by March 2021 he was on trial in the Kirovskyi district court of Dnipro with a co-defendant on robbery and attempted murder charges, and was still directing MKY Telegram channels from jail.5 After his arrest, Michail Chkhikvishvili assumed operational leadership. Chkhikvishvili, a Georgian national who used the alias "Commander Butcher," expanded the network's international reach and shifted its recruitment toward Telegram and Wire/Matrix for encrypted internal communications distinct from its public-facing channels.2

Ideology and Murder Points System

MKY's ideological framework combines three elements: neo-Nazi accelerationism (the belief that mass violence against Jews, racial minorities, and LGBTQ+ individuals will precipitate societal collapse and enable a fascist reconstitution), theistic Satanism drawn from Order of Nine Angles-adjacent traditions, and a misanthropic exaltation of serial killers and mass murderers as exemplary figures. Venerated "saints" include the 2019 Brenton Tarrant attacker, Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber), and the Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs - three Ukrainian teenagers who filmed and distributed murders in 2007.

The "Murder Points" system operationalizes this ideology through a formal rank structure: crimes earn different point values (higher for more severe acts), with accumulated points translating to elevated rank within the network. A documented tier hierarchy means members progress from vandalism through assault to arson to terrorism and murder, with the network's internal status architecture rewarding escalation. This distinguishes MKY from the largely status-driven nihilism of other Com subgroups: MKY's violence serves both internal rank and stated ideological goals.6

International Reach and Attributed Violence

Though Ukrainian in origin, MKY expanded internationally through Telegram recruitment, with documented members in at least a dozen countries by 2024. Real-world violence directly attributed to MKY or members acting on its direction includes:

Romania (2022): A 17-year-old member livestreamed the murder of an elderly woman as an MKY initiation ritual and separately injured an 82-year-old man. Romanian courts convicted the perpetrator in August 2023 to 14 years imprisonment.

Turkey (August 2024): An 18-year-old neo-Nazi livestreamed stabbing multiple people near a mosque in Eskisehir. The attack has been attributed to MKY by researchers; it is also cited in the Canadian sentencing proceedings of Terrorgram Collective co-founder Matthew Althorpe as a Terrorgram-inspired attack, reflecting the substantial ideological overlap between these networks.

Nashville, Tennessee (January 22, 2025): Solomon Henderson, 17, shot and killed student Josselin Corea Escalante at Antioch High School before dying by suicide. Henderson's manifesto cited MKY and named Chkhikvishvili specifically. Nashville Metropolitan Police Department's January 2026 investigative update concluded Henderson had no co-conspirators and that there was no evidence of direct operational direction from MKY.

Sweden (2024): A 14-year-old known online as "Slain764" stabbed two elderly individuals; at least six additional attacks were recorded and promoted on Telegram by this individual before their arrest in September 2024. The ISD and ADL attribute this activity to the intersection of 764 and MKY networks.7

Prosecutions and Designations

The primary prosecution of MKY leadership was brought by the United States Department of Justice against Michail Chkhikvishvili in the Eastern District of New York. Chkhikvishvili was indicted in July 2024 for soliciting hate crimes and planning a mass casualty attack in New York City. He was arrested in Chisinau, Moldova in July 2024 and extradited to the United States in May 2025. He pleaded guilty in November 2025 and was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon in May 2026.

Krasnov was held in the Dnipro pre-trial detention center while on trial in 2021. The FSB said in December 2021 that he acted under the patronage of Ukrainian special services, which the Security Service of Ukraine called false.89 The Basmanny District Court of Moscow arrested him in absentia on February 14, 2022 on a charge of murdering two or more persons, and the Supreme Court of Russia designated MKU a terrorist organization on January 16, 2023, on a claim by Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov.1011

Alongside the U.S. prosecution, the UK proscribed MKY as a terrorist organization on July 2, 2025, making membership a criminal offense in England and Wales. Canada designated MKY as a terrorist entity on December 10, 2025, in the same order that designated 764 and Terrorgram Collective.12

A Limestone County, Alabama, Alabama indictment reported on December 5, 2025 names MKU (Maniac Murder Cult), 764 and No Lives Matter as groups with which Carson Albert Butler allegedly conspired against Athens High School students and staff; see Athens High School Terrorism Case.13

Footnotes

  1. Argentino, Marc-Andre, Gay, Arthur, and Bastin, Naomi. "Nihilism and Terror: How M.K.Y. Is Redefining Terrorism, Recruitment, and Mass Violence." CTC Sentinel, Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. August/September 2024. https://ctc.westpoint.edu/nihilism-and-terror-how-m-k-y-is-redefining-terrorism-recruitment-and-mass-violence/ ↩︎

  2. Argentino, Marc-Andre. "Brotherhood of Blood: Understanding the Origins and Trajectory of the Maniac Murder Cult." GNET, December 4, 2024. https://gnet-research.org/2024/12/04/brotherhood-of-blood-understanding-the-origins-and-trajectory-of-the-maniac-murder-cult/ ↩︎

  3. Aleksey Sokovnin, "ВС запретил движение МКУ," Kommersant, January 16, 2023. https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5773015 ↩︎

  4. Valentyna Letiak, "Різав ножем і знімав на відео: у Дніпрі затримали 19-річного маніяка," Fakty ICTV, January 29, 2020. https://fakty.com.ua/ua/proisshestvija/20200129-rizav-nozhem-i-znimav-na-video-u-dnipri-zatrymaly-19-richnogo-maniyaka/ ↩︎

  5. Andrey Soshnikov, "Что такое «М.К.У.». Рассказываем о «культе» убийств, созданном украинскими скинхедами, и его последователях в России," Current Time, March 26, 2021. https://www.currenttime.tv/a/chto-takoe-m-k-u/31171118.html ↩︎

  6. ADL. "764." https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/764 ↩︎

  7. ADL. "Antioch, Tenn. Shooter Inspired by Broad Extremist Beliefs and Previous Mass Killers." https://www.adl.org/resources/article/antioch-tenn-shooter-inspired-broad-extremist-beliefs-and-previous-mass-killers; ISD. "From sextortion to violence: The threat of the 764 network in the US." https://www.isdglobal.org/digital-dispatch/from-sextortion-to-violence-the-evolving-threat-of-the-764-network-in-the-us/ ↩︎

  8. "ФСБ сообщила о задержании 106 сторонников неонацистской группировки «М.К.У.»," Meduza, December 13, 2021. https://meduza.io/news/2021/12/13/fsb-soobschila-o-zaderzhanii-106-storonnikov-neonatsistskoy-gruppirovki-m-k-u-yakoby-sozdannoy-pod-rukovodstvom-ukrainskih-spetssluzhb ↩︎

  9. Aleksey Aleksandrov, "«Из СИЗО создать такую разветвленную сеть сложно». Что в Украине знают об «основателе М.К.У.»," Current Time, December 14, 2021. https://www.currenttime.tv/a/iz-sizo-sozdat-takuyu/31608632.html ↩︎

  10. "Суд в Москве заочно арестовал лидера украинской радикальной группировки «М.К.У.»," Kommersant, February 15, 2022. https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5216949 ↩︎

  11. "Верховный суд России объявил движение «М.К.У.» террористической организацией," Meduza, January 16, 2023. https://meduza.io/news/2023/01/16/verhovnyy-sud-rossii-priznal-dvizhenie-m-k-u-manyaki-kult-ubiystv-terroristicheskoy-organizatsiey ↩︎

  12. U.S. Department of Justice, OPA. "Georgian National Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Soliciting Hate Crimes and Planning Mass Casualty Attack." May 2026. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/georgian-national-sentenced-15-years-prison-soliciting-hate-crimes-and-planning-mass; Government of Canada. "Government of Canada Lists Four New Terrorist Entities." December 10, 2025. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2025/12/government-of-canada-lists-four-new-terrorist-entities0.html ↩︎

  13. Wesley Tomlinson, "Indictment: Teen committed terrorism, attempted murder targeting Athens High staff, students," The Decatur Daily, December 5, 2025, https://www.decaturdaily.com/news/limestone_county/indictment-teen-committed-terrorism-attempted-murder-targeting-athens-high-staff-students/article_f6921221-e422-4cb9-a33d-acc4b3430aa4.html ↩︎