Russian Far-Right Group Claims to Hold Pro-Mladic Protest in Moscow

Protest of the Russian Imperial Movement in front of Embassy od Bosnia and Herzegovina in Moscow. Foto: VKontakte

The Russian Imperial Movement claimed in a post on Russian social network VKontakte on November 27 that its members held a gathering in front of the embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Moscow in late November “against the anti-Serb policy of this country [Bosnia and Herzegovina] and its fight against Serb heroes”.

The same day, Serbian right-wing organisation Srpska Akcija (Serbian Action) claimed in posts on social media that its members gave out flyers and displayed banners with the slogans “Stop Russophobia” and “Persecution of Russian language is a crime” in front of the Ukrainian embassy in the Serbian capital Belgrade.

“This is how Serbian Action is participating in the Russian Imperial Movement’s warning and appeal to the Ukrainian authorities and the authorities of the Russian Federation at the point when there are increasing numbers of crimes against the Russian people and Russian identity in Ukraine, as well as aggression against the Russian Donbas [Russian-backed separatist-held area of eastern Ukraine],” the organisation said in the social media posts.

Una Hajdari, a journalist who follows right-wing groups, told BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina that the Russian Imperial Movement and Serbian Action believe that the current situation in the Balkans is a symbol of the suffering that “the West is imposing on Serbia and Russia”.

Hajdari said that the two organisations believe that Western countries “constantly label Russia as the bad guy for everything it does”, while also telling Serbs that “genocide was only committed against Bosniaks, but not against Serbs”.

She warned that the two right-wing groups’ activities have the potential to become dangerous.

“You know, when these groups start publishing [material about] such an ideology, it penetrates into the ‘mainstream’ in a very dangerous way… The lack of respect towards human life when it is not a part of your ethnic group is what symbolises the far right and it’s the most toxic thing that the right wing is showing to society,” she said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Bosnian embassy in Moscow did not respond to queries from BIRN about the protest in November.

Bosnian analyst Adnan Huskic said he believes that the embassy registered the protest, but unless it endangered anyone’s security, considered it to be “normal”.

The Russian Imperial Movement published several photographs of its members holding flags and photos of Bosnian Serb wartime general Ratko Mladic, describing the convicted war criminal as a hero, as well as a photo of the Bosnian flag that flies in front of the embassy in Moscow.

The Russian Imperial Movement’s post of November 27 called for Russians and Serbs to unite, and accused Bosnia and Herzegovina of being a servant of NATO, which it said promotes “religious, cultural and ethnic genocide against Serbs”.

“Besides that, the Bosnians recently made a series of harsh statements against Russian volunteers who defended Serbs during the civil war in 1994-95 [in Bosnia and Herzegovina],” it added.

It further claimed that in parallel to the protest in Moscow, “comrades” from Serbian Action organised a protest in front of the Ukrainian embassy in Belgrade, and thanked Serbian Action for its support.
Huskic said that similar organisations have the support of the authorities in Serbia and Russia, even though they are “more radical than the authorities”.

He claimed that the Serbian and Russian governments take a dual approach to the right-wing groups’ activities – “on one hand, they flirt with that story, because it suits them to have that angle covered, for people to see that they have sufficiently strong ethnic bona fides, and on the other hand, they don’t have any direct links to them, so they can always wash their hands of them in case something goes wrong”.

Huskic added that this is how most authoritarian regimes function.

In April 2020, the United States declared the Russian Imperial Movement and members of its leadership “specially designated global terrorists”, which, according to a State Department announcement, was the first time that institution had designated a group of “white supremacists” to be terrorists.

Three leaders of the Russian Imperial Movement were declared a threat to the national security of the US.
“RIM provides paramilitary-style training to neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Europe and it plays a proactive role in trying to rally likeminded groups of this type into a common front against their perceived enemies,” the State Department said.

It said that the group has training facilities in St. Petersburg, which are probably being used for woodland and urban assault exercises and tactical weapons and hand-to-hand combat training.

The State Department also said that in 2016, two Swedish men underwent training provided by the Russian Imperial Movement and later took part in a series of terrorist attacks in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, targeting a shelter for refugees and asylum-seekers and a coffee shop. The men were convicted by the Swedish courts.

“Swedish prosecutors blamed RIM for radicalising them and providing the training,” the State Department said. It added adding that the Russian Imperial Movement also provided paramilitary training to white supremacists from Germany, Poland and Finland.

In response to BIRN’s query about its reasons for the protest and its cooperation with Serbian Action, the Russian Imperial Movement said that the demonstration was “against anti-Serb position in Bosnia”.

Protest of Serbian Action in front of the Ukrainian embassy in Belgrade. Foto: Screenshot, VKontakte

On the same day as the Russian Imperial Movement’s announced that it had held the protest in Moscow, Serbian Action responded with thanks on its Telegram channel. Serbian Action said that, on behalf of the Russian Imperial Movement or the Russian Czarist Movement, it staged an action in front of the Ukrainian embassy in Belgrade, distributing fliers and displaying banners saying “Stop Russophobia”.

The post also noted that fighting has intensified in Donbas. Donbas is an area of eastern Ukraine that has been seized by Russian-backed separatists who are locked in a continuing armed conflict with Ukrainian government forces. The separatists took control after Russia seized the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014.

“On this matter, the stance of the Russian Federation authorities is problematic, as they only express the will to preserve Russian Crimea, while not showing any serious intention to protect the Russian people when it comes to Donbas. We hope that this will change,” Serbian Action said in the post, which also accused Ukraine of “anti-Russian terror”.

“Therefore we support solidarity with Russian nationalists and say: ‘No to Russophobia!’” Serbian Action said.
The organisation did not respond to BIRN’s request for a comment.

BIRN has previously reported that the organisation has been mentioned in several annual reports about right-wing extremism prepared by German intelligence agencies in the German state of Saxony.