In the early 2000s, Russia faced an emerging and large-scale threat posed by neo-Nazi and extreme-right violent organisations. The government response at the time was strong – security forces and police relentlessly pursued violent groups, arresting their members and handing out long sentences, many for life. For almost two decades, while single incidents of right-wing violence still took place, the government’s tough approach was able to, if not eliminate, significantly reduce the activity of major neo-Nazi groups operating at the time (from more than 250 attacks per year in the 2000s, to fewer than 50 per year between 2011 and 2021). However, this state of affairs has changed dramatically since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. According to Russia’s independent extremism research centre SOVA, since 2023 the number of hate-motivated and racist crimes has spiked dramatically, from fewer than 100 victims in 2015 to over 250 victims in 2024. This brought the scale of violence back to a level not seen since several high-profile arrests ended a wave of far-right violence in 2011. The trend appears to persist in 2026. What is more concerning is that most of the perpetrators tend to be very young – often just 13-14 years old, which appears to be a common thread within Russian Neo-Nazi movements. This Insight discusses the recent rise in prominence of neo-Nazi ideas on Russian-language social media – specifically NS/WP Crew and takeaways from this case. First exploring the emergence of the group and its engagement with young people, the Insight then considers reasons why they may be drawn to Neo-Nazi ideology and suggests possible measures that tech companies could undertake to address the threat of spreading Russian-language Neo-Nazi propaganda online. Neo-Nazism 2.0 Driving the resurgence of neo-Nazism in Russia, the increased activity of various organisations has been an important engine in recent years. Among the most prominent online is the so-called National Socialism/White Power Crew (NS/WP Crew), also known as the Sparrows Crew and the Four Leaf Crew. The organisation was founded in 2004, and quickly became one of the most prolific neo-Nazi organisations in the country. They became notorious for filming violence and murders against migrants and non-white or homeless Russians, and uploading footage to the internet – pre-empting ISIS’s self-promotion through gore content 10 years later. By 2014, many of its members were arrested for murders and sentenced to 6 to 24 years in prison. In 2021, one can observe a slow re-awakening of Russian neo-Nazis, including NS/WP, beginning with the publication of the memoirs of Andrey Pronsky – an infamous neo-Nazi who became notorious for filming and posting videos of murders on the group’s forums. Around the same time came the decision of the Russian Supreme Court to designate NS/WP as a terrorist organisation. The decision was unexpected, as the organisation had been inactive for almost a decade by then. This timing aligned with the fact that a few prominent neo-Nazi figures, including Andrey Pronsky, had been released from custody the same year, though the exact reasoning behind the court’s decision is unknown. (…) Telegram channels appear to serve mostly as a platform for instructions, training, and financing. After joining the channel, a new recruit gains access to a lengthy manuscript with instructions on conducting violent attacks and arson. New recruits are also required to attract other followers who are registered on burner phones. For security reasons, they keep contact with at most two or three potential recruits. The channels also post crypto-wallet details to which people can donate money, which the group then spends, according to social media posts, on aid for arrested members or on rewarding new recruits for the criminal acts they commit. An ecosystem of promotion means that many members may not be first exposed to the group through Telegram directly. The initial contact through attention-grabbing content appears to happen on TikTok, an important platform where “most” young Russian people with neo-Nazi interests are exposed to and consume extremist content, according to a former extremist interviewed by BBC News Russia. On average, the group’s official TikTok videos receive about 50 likes and shares, and its accounts have around 1,000 followers. Exemplar TikTok accounts include links that lead users to join private chats or the group’s website (a process known as outlinking). Searches for Russian keywords linked to neo-Nazi ideology readily lead users to TikTok content produced by NS/WP or featuring elements of the group’s aesthetics, which in turn links to Telegram or other platforms hosting more extreme content.
via gnet: The Rebirth of Neo-Nazi Ideology in Russia and Its Appeal to Young People
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