130. ***.[1]
The Russian Imperial Movement
In April 2020, the US State Department proscribed the Russian Imperial Movement (an ultra-nationalist paramilitary group based in St Petersburg which allegedly has links to White Supremacist organisations in the West) as an international terrorist organisation.[2]
In September 2020, JSTAT assessed that there was currently ***.[3]
Mixed Martial Arts
131. Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) was flagged up to the Committee by Nick Lowles, Chief Executive of Hope Not Hate, as a potential recruiting ground by, and for, the Far Right:
The one other angle which hasn't influenced the UK as much as it has in central Europe but it has the potential to is the whole MMA world, so the mixed martial arts now. The Far Right in central Europe and the US has heavily tried to kind of get into the MMA world, which is, I guess, typical, it's very male, it's fighting, masculine, and a number of MMA instructors/fighters from the US have come to Europe over the last few years and in Germany, Poland, the Far Right influence in these worlds, they set up fight clubs. You know, some of the most distressing videos online are, you know, Russian and Polish extremists fighting each other for some fun online. In National Action, in the pre-ban days, there were six MMA instructors involved in National Action. So this is a world, I think, that, you know, certainly we need to be aware of, because it's deliberately being targeted by the Far Right now, because it's people who like fighting.[4]
132. These concerns are borne out by recent media reporting in Germany. In September 2020, the German media carried reports of a police raid on a Right-Wing Extremist MMA tournament (which had been banned in 2019) organised in the grounds of a motorcycle club in Magdeburg, and that "Germany's intelligence services have described the event as 'the largest and most renowned European martial arts event for the right-wing extremist scene'."[5] However, when we asked CTP and Homeland Security Group about the possible connection between ERWT and MMA in the UK, they advised that they had, to date, seen no evidence of links between ERWT and MMA.[6]
J. Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a popular activity enjoyed by many people across the UK. The fact that this is an area currently being targeted by the Far Right in other countries, and that a number of MMA instructors were previously found to have been involved in National Action, suggests that MI5 and Counter Terrorism Policing should be alert to the potential for links in the future.
- ↑ Written evidence - MI5, 2 October 2020.
- ↑ 'United States Designates Russian Imperial Movement and Leaders as Global Terrorists', 7 April 2020, state.gov/united-states-designates-russian-imperial-movement-and-leaders-as-global-terrorists/
- ↑ ***
- ↑ Oral evidence - Nick Lowles, Hope Not Hate, 16 December 2020.
- ↑ 'Germany: Police raid far-right martial arts tournament', Die Welle, 27 September 2020.
- ↑ Oral evidence - CTP and Home Office, 28 April 2021.
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