RUSI: The Night Wolves Settle in Slovakia, and the Kremlin With Them?
Article published in the Volume 38, No. 7 of RUSI, August 2018
As the infamous Russian motorcycle club ‘The Night Wolves’ establish a permanent presence in Central Europe, the Kremlin is well-placed to exert its influence in this problematic part of the EU
Russian tanks are back in Slovakia. On 26 July, a drone operated by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalists caught sight of old tanks, other armoured vehicles and police equipment at a former pig farm in Dolná Krupá, some 60 km from the capital city, Bratislava. Video captured by the drone also showed what appeared to be a training field and shooting range. When Jozef Hambálek, the owner saw journalists filming outside the complex, he came out to threaten the supposed trespassers. Hambálek is the head of the Nočná vlka Európa (Night Wolves Europe) group, a sister organisation of the infamous pro-Kremlin Russian motorcycle club Nochnye Volki (Night Wolves). Although similar organisations have been active in European countries for years, including in Serbia, Romania, Macedonia and Bulgaria, the Dolná Krupá complex is the first base to be opened by one of these clubs on European soil. The Slovak paramilitary group Slovenskí Branci (Slovak Levies) is also allegedly using the compound. The report of the discovery immediately caused an uproar, with Slovak President Andrej Kiska calling for preventive measures against what he considers to be a ‘serious security risk’.
However, the Night Wolves deny doing anything illegal. Their tanks are neither real nor Russian, and in fact are quite old vehicles that come from the Slovak Military History Institute. The compound cannot be described as an official representation of the Kremlin either. The Night Wolves are officially an independent bikers’ club and does not have any formal ties with the Russian government. Peter Susko, the spokesman of the Slovak foreign ministry, acknowledged that Slovakia could not refer to the Russian embassy to address its concerns with the complex at Dolná Krupá. Moreover, the base cannot really be considered a serious security threat. It is highly unlikely that the Night Wolves will drive their old tanks down to Bratislava with the aim of overthrowing the government. Hambálek claims that he plans to open a museum to honour Soviet units who used motorcycles in the Second World War, and as such, Russian media outlets immediately criticised the Slovak authorities’ ‘hysterical’ reaction.
While the Night Wolves claim to be nothing more than a harmless biker’s club, there are grounds for concern, especially considering that one of the club’s mottos is ‘wherever the Night Wolves are should be considered Russia’. This underscores the evaluation of a Yale University historian Timothy Snyder, who sees the Wolves as a ‘as a paramilitary and propaganda arm of the Putin regime’. They effectively use a range of methods to promote Russia’s influence abroad, whether by conducting annual bike parades across Europe to Berlin to commemorate the Soviet victory over Nazism, or encouraging more direct and violent actions in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. The Wolves are also alleged to collect intelligence, recruit fighters who are then deployed to Ukraine and Syria, and to stir up civil discontent and political agitation, all on behalf of the Kremlin. Post-communist countries, which Moscow considers as its traditional sphere of influence, are primary targets. The Night Wolves stand as a prime example of Russia’s hybrid non-state hooliganism, that is the Kremlin’s recurring use of alleged independent organisations to spread its influence and meddle in other countries’ affairs. Albeit the Wolves are not formally under state control, they are unofficially sanctioned to act on Russian state’s behalf. As such, their settling in Slovakia can be understood as a new move in Russia’s wider geopolitical game.
The Wolves’ history is well known. The club was founded in the late 1980s as a classic bikers’ association: libertarian, utterly anti-Soviet and, by implication, pro-Western. The club made a drastic U-turn in the early 2000s when it became a religious, conservative and openly homophobic movement. The Wolves’ representatives, particularly its leader Aleksandr Zaldostanov, (nicknamed ‘the Surgeon’, given his prior vocation as a physician) are known for their clear nationalist speeches citing nostalgia of the Russian empire and Soviet Union. Political expert Mark Galeotti claims that ‘they were the new Putinists’ even before the Kremlin began to adopt its more illiberal stance. Russian President Vladimir Putin went on to meet Zaldostanov several times and rode alongside the Wolves in August 2011— albeit on a less intimidating three-wheeled motorcycle — which highlights the importance the organisation has for the Kremlin. According to British journalist Peter Pomerantsev , the club was approached by senior Kremlin aide and chief propagandist Vladislav Surkov, who was able to secure police sympathies, media exposure and funding for the Night Wolves. The Russian opposition figure Aleksei Navalny published a report in 2015, which claims that the Night Wolves have received a series of grants worth a combined 56 million roubles (more than £655,000) since 2013. The Wolves’ impressive and well-funded ‘bike shows’ tend to attract large audiences – often numbering in the thousands – who come to see dramatic motorcycle performances, light displays, and Stalinist-themes speeches alongside Christian Orthodox preachers. Back in 2013, Pomerantsev asked Aleksei Weitz, one of the group’s representatives, if Stalin had a contradictory relationship with the Orthodox faith. Weitz answered: ‘We don’t know why [Stalin] was sent by God. Maybe he had to slaughter them so the faith could be tested. We don’t know. It’s not for us to judge. When you cut out a disease you have to cut out healthy flesh too’. This eclectic mix is characteristic of Putin’s new Russia — one that does not concern itself with contradictions.
The 5000-strong Night Wolves are quite active in Russia. They volunteered to guard Orthodox cathedrals after the protest group Pussy Riot organised a ‘punk prayer’ on the soleas of Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in February 2012. The bikers’ gang also speaks out against LGBT groups. They were among the main organisers of the Russian version of the so-called ‘Anti-Maidan’ movement, which put pressure on political opposition following the events of 2013–2014 in Ukraine that had deposed former President Viktor Yanukovych. Most of the Wolves’ actions are in defence of the Kremlin’s interests and policies, but they claim this to be a mere coincidence, a convergence of minds and values. These muscled and tattooed bikers have proven useful when it comes to using unsanctioned non-state violence. In 2012, the Wolves were involved in a deadly fight with a rival US-friendly motorcycle club, the Tremia Dorogamy (Three Roads). As non-state hooligans, they show how the Kremlin has tamed potential opponents and hostile groups in order to use them as tools of control.
The Wolves are likely to be instrumental in the Kremlin’s project of expanding Russia’s influence abroad and interfering in the domestic affairs of neighbouring countriess. For example, the annual bike parades to Berlin often prompt criticism from those countries en route. Back in April 2016, Latvia added the local Night Wolves leader Igor Lakatosh to its list of personae non gratae. The Wolves are also banned from entering Poland. Yet the bikers still make their way across several countries to reach the German capital, meeting supporters, facing opponents, and asserting Russia’s soft power along the way. The parades’ practical and visual aspects set the tone. Bikers tend to fill the roads they drive along, blocking other road users and attracting attention with flags and loud music. However, sending groups of ‘patriotic citizens’ abroad to promote Russia’s historical legacy is nothing new. Back in 2007, the Estonian government decided to replace a Soviet-era statue of a bronze soldier in the centre of Tallinn with a suburban cemetery. Protests erupted and the pro-Putin youth movement Nashi (Ours) instructed some of its members to take part in demonstrations and scuffles with the police. Officially, the Kremlin did not take a side, but it nevertheless attempted to support the patriotic Russophones who considered the removal of the statue to be offensive to their grand-parents’ heritage.
The Night Wolves have been particularly active in Ukraine since 2014. They have supported the process of Crimea annexation in March 2014 and they have helped consolidating the pro-Russia rebels’ control over parts of eastern Ukraine. As a Kiev-based press correspondent, the author has personally met them twice, on the streets of Simferopol, Crimea, and in separatist-held Krasnodon in Eastern Ukraine. Both times they held a parade and organised patriotic rock concerts to promote the Kremlin’s policies. Through this, they support and encourage the idea of a grassroots movement in favour of Crimea’s ‘reunification’ with Russia, despite such a move going against Ukraine’s state policy and not being recognised by the international community.
In December 2014, US intelligence reported that the Wolves actively assisted Russian special forces in their annexation of Crimea, by storming a gas distribution station and the Ukrainian Naval Forces Headquarters, for which Zaldostanov was awarded a ‘Return of Crimea’ medal by Putin himself. The Night Wolves also took up arms during the conflict in eastern Ukraine and have fought against Ukrainian troops. The war in Ukraine has seen several mercenary groups taking an active role as a way to hide, among other things, the direct involvement of Russian regular troops. Both the Night Wolves and Zaldostanov have been under US sanctions since _____, as are some private businesses allegedly linked to the club. —— https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl9729.aspx
The Wolves act as a multitasking complement to Russia’s other means of influence, including internet activism, promoting disinformation, and forging partnerships with political parties across Europe. The Budapest-based research and analysis institute Political Capital 2017 report focuses on the Kremlin’s interests in promoting its own links between nationalist and extremist political parties in Central and Eastern Europe. ‘Links are not accidental’, the report says, in a region that is important to Russian interests, both historically and politically. Since 2014, the Ukrainian crisis has been a key element of political influence as it has ‘resulted in the allocation of more financial resources to and the organisation of more active measures by the Kremlin in the region’. Budapest’s concerns for Ukraine’s Hungarian minority and Czech President Milos Zeman’s advocacy of a “Finlandisation” of Ukraine - the neutralisation of a country instead of its affiliation to a political and military organisation - are both seen to be the result of Russia’s influence. The recent opening of the Night Wolves’ compound in Slovakia coincided with Slovak MP Peter Marcek’s trip to Crimea – which the international community does not recognise as Russian. He and former national intelligence chief Igor Cibula held several meetings with the peninsula’s Russian officials. The trip remains unsanctioned by the Slovak government. As the Political Capital report notes, ‘the efforts of Russian meddling remain unchallenged in most countries’ in the region, and in the EU in general.
Following the inauguration of the Dolná Krupá compound, more than 200 Slovak celebrities have signed a petition demanding that Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini take action against the club’s activities. The local village authorities also requested that the complex be shut down out of concerns for the town reputation and safety. The foreign ministry offered assurances that the security services would be monitoring the area, and the government ordered a state inspection of the compound to determine whether a Second World War museum can be legally built on an area that is officially registered to an agricultural company. Furthermore, the defence ministry has claimed the military equipment on the compound and requires it to be returned. Given this, the Night Wolves’ first basecamp within the EU may not last long. Yet, the establishment of this outpost demonstrates a clear intent to extend their influence to other countries and to continue to act as an extension of the Kremlin’s policy in Europe.
