TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
US designates Russian ultra-nationalist group as terrorists
"This is the first time the United States has ever designated white supremacist terrorists."
Change Size
The White House at dusk in Washington, US, on March 11, 2020. (REUTERS/Tom Brenner)
T
he Trump administration has designated an ultra-nationalist group in Russia as terrorists, the first time that the US has applied the label to a white supremacist group.
“These designations are unprecedented,” Nathan Sales, the State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism, said in a statement. “This is the first time the United States has ever designated white supremacist terrorists, illustrating how seriously this administration takes the threat. We are taking actions no previous administration has taken to counter this threat.”
In addition to the group, the Russian Imperial Movement, the US designated Stanislav Anatolyevich Vorobyev, Denis Valliullovich Gariev and Nikolay Nikolayevich Trushchalov, according to Sales.
The Russian Imperial Movement provides paramilitary-style training to neo-Nazis and white supremacists, and it plays a prominent role in trying to rally like-minded Europeans and Americans into a common front against their perceived enemies, according to Sales. The group has two training facilities in St. Petersburg, which the State Department said are probably being used for woodland and urban assault, tactical weapons, and hand-to-hand combat training.
“These historic designations are just one part of the administration’s broader efforts to counter white supremacist terrorism abroad,” Sales said. “We’re bringing all of our counterterrorism tools to this fight – information sharing, counter-messaging, combating terrorist travel, engaging with tech companies, and building partner capacity to protect soft targets like synagogues and mosques.”
