Washington put a white supremacist group on its blacklist for international terrorism for the first time on Monday, April 6, to show its determination in the face of this "Threat" particularly lively in the United States, despite the ambiguity often blamed on Donald Trump. The measure targets a group called the Russian Imperial Movement and three of its leaders, Stanislav Vorobiev, Denis Gariev and Nikolai Trushchalov.
If an old website of this small group has been banned in Russia for extremism, the movement itself is not considered to be "Terrorist" by Moscow. Washington accuses him, however, of "Provide paramilitary training to neo-Nazis and white supremacists" in two centers in Saint Petersburg, and having trained Swedes, who then carried out attacks in their country at the end of 2016-beginning of 2017. This monarchist movement claims to be able to train in knife fighting and martial arts, and considers itself to be a "Criminal weakness for a modern man in Russia not to be a warrior".
"The United States is not immune to this threat"
This blacklisting "Demonstrate how seriously this government takes this threat"said the State Department’s counterterrorism coordinator Nathan Sales. "We want to make sure he is not able to do the same here in the United States", warned Sales during a conference call with journalists, also mentioning the organization’s involvement, sometimes called the Imperial Legion, alongside the Prussians in the war in Ukraine.
The Trump administration mainly thinks that this group "Plays an important role in trying to rally Europeans and Americans in a common front against those whom they perceive as their enemies"said the diplomat. "Generally speaking, any foreign terrorist group that tries to make common cause with Americans is a big concern for us", he insisted.
Beyond its concrete aspect – the organization and its leaders will no longer have access to the American financial system -, the American decision is above all symbolic. This is to display the Trump administration’s action on this "White terrorism", also active on American soil. "The United States is not immune to this threat" of "Terrorism linked to white supremacism", which has been spreading around the world since 2015, the diplomat said.
He spoke of recent attacks "Targeting people for their race or religion", against synagogues in Pittsburg, where 11 people died in October 2018, or in Poway, California, where a 19-year-old white supremacist killed a woman and injured three people in the midst of Jewish Passover in 2019. He also cited the deadly shooting of El Paso last summer, the author of which, before killing 22 supermarket customers, had written a manifesto denouncing "A Hispanic invasion of Texas".
Since the Pittsburg and El Paso attacks, the FBI has multiplied operations in circles of the radical white far right. For years, US officials have been accused by many observers of neglecting domestic terrorism, which has killed more in the United States since 2002 than jihadism.