The BBC has confronted a neo-Nazi in Finland who shared online instructions on how to commit arson with UK rioters during the summer. The 20-year-old was an administrator in the Southport Wake Up group on the Telegram messaging app, where he was known as “Mr AG”. He posted the arson manual, which was pinned to the top of the group chat. In late July and early August, the group was key in helping to organise and provoke protests that turned to violence in England and Northern Ireland. We tracked Mr AG – whose real name is Charles-Emmanuel Mikko Rasanen – to an apartment on the outskirts of the Finnish capital, Helsinki. It was from here, more than 1,000 miles away from Southport, that the neo-Nazi took a prominent online role during the UK riots. On 29 July, within hours of the killings of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, the Southport Wake Up group was created. Within days it had grown to more than 14,000 members. Mr Rasanen – or Mr AG as he was known online – helped to run the group chat. The group organised the very first protest in the UK, on St Luke’s Road in Southport, the day after the killings. That protest later turned into a riot. Before the group was taken down by Telegram, a series of other protest locations were advertised, as well as a list of dozens of refugee centres, suggested as potential targets. Alongside that list, Mr AG posted the arson manual, writing: “Something fun for you to read.” The manual is believed to have been written by a Russian fascist group proscribed as terrorists in their own country. It includes details on how to avoid the police and it encourages the targeting of Muslims and Jews. Underneath the post, other members wrote aggressive and offensive comments, including: “I’m ready for these migrant boys,” while another describes “invaders” as “a stupid bunch underestimating whites”. (…) On his Telegram accounts, Mr Rasanen celebrates Hitler and promotes a neo-Nazi group called the Nordic Resistance Movement, which is banned as a terrorist organisation in the US. He also posts voice notes – in one he describes himself as a “national socialist”, and in another he appears to call for the genocide of Jewish people. Veli-Pekka Hämäläinen, an investigative journalist at Yle, Finland’s national broadcaster, says Mr Rasanen has been active online “for many years”.
via bbc: BBC confronts neo-Nazi who gave UK rioters arson tips