U.S. Designates Russian Ultra-Nationalist Group as Terrorists

(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration has designated an ultra-nationalist group in Russia as terrorists, the first time that the U.S. 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 U.S. 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.”

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