The Russian Imperial Movement (Russkoe Imperskoe Dvizhenie, RIM) is a St. Petersburg-based ultranationalist, monarchist organization founded in 2002 that operates paramilitary training camps. On April 7, 2020 the U.S. Department of State designated RIM and three of its leaders, Stanislav Anatolyevich Vorobyev, Denis Valiullovich Gariyev, and Nikolay Nikolayevich Trushchalov, as Specially Designated Global Terrorists. It was the first time the United States applied the designation to a white supremacist group. The State Department identified Trushchalov as RIM’s coordinator for external relations.

According to the designation, RIM provided paramilitary-style training to white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Europe, and two Swedish men who trained with the group later carried out a series of bombings in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2016 and 2017. RIM also recruited fighters for Russian proxy forces in eastern Ukraine and took part in the 2015 International Russian Conservative Forum in St. Petersburg organized by the Rodina party.

Sources

• U.S. Department of State. “United States Designates Russian Imperial Movement and Leaders as Global Terrorists.” Press statement, April 7, 2020.
• Meduza. “Europe’s Far Right Flocks to Russia.” March 24, 2015.

Summary entry. A fuller, document-based profile is in preparation.