German intelligence reported on “Russian non-cistons” fighting in Ukraine. They don’t hide it themselves.
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An internal document of the German Federal Intelligence Service BND that Moscow’s troops are being detected by right-wing extremist groups,” wrote the German weekly Der Spiegel. Rusich”.
The Russian service of the BBC tells what is known about them.
In a story published on Sunday, Spiegel to a confidential BND report sent to the federal ministry the week before last.
According to the BND, in connection with the prerequisites, there are at least two groups with right-wing extremist sentiments in the fighting.
The Germans call one of them the “Russian Imperial League”, but they specify that it is about the “Russian Imperial Legion” – a paramilitary association of the “Russian Imperial Movement” (RID). In addition, the report refers to the Rusich group.
The number of militants fighting in Ukraine is not indicated in the report. The group’s promises fought on the side of Russia in the Donbass in 2014 and 2015.
Collaboration with the six factions reduces the Kremlin’s alleged cause of the war – the so-called “denazification” of Ukraine – to the point of absurdity, Spiegel recounts the intelligence document.
The report says that on February 24, the head of the Russian Imperial Legion, Denis Gariev, wrote on Telegram: “We absolutely support the liquidation of the separatist entity called Ukraine.”
The BBC found this post on a Telegram channel that was renamed PARTIZAN on February 27. Under the post is the signature “Head of the Center for Tactical and Fire Training “Partizan” Gariev Denis.”
The same check post on February 24 and the Russian Imperial Movement telegram channel, Deutsche Welle edition.
BND draws attention to the fact that one of the telegram channels announced the recruitment of fighters with combat experience and graduates of the training center of the Partizan organization in St. Petersburg. However, it is not clear whether the recruitment was on demand or based on an expression of increased anxiety, the authors of the report note.
The recruitment of volunteers voluntarily took part in the war with Ukraine, declared on March 8 by the same Partizan telegram channel, the BBC agreed.
The report says that Gariev’s deputy died in Ukraine, and Gariev himself was wounded. At least two more of their comrades-in-arms were seriously injured.
On the page of the Partizan Center, the BBC found message about the injury of Gariyev dated April 19: “Our commander Denis Gariev, was wounded in the leg, the bones are intact, evacuated to Russia, he is feeling normal, inevitable to return to duty soon.”
In May, a message appeared on the RID telegram channel about the meeting of Gariev Denis Nekrasov near Izyum, drawing the attention of Deutsche Welle.
According to Spiegel, the Rusich group has been fighting in Ukraine since the beginning of April at the latest.
In 2014 and 2015, the characteristics of her fighters were “known for brutality” and the reputation of “never taking prisoners”, preserved in the retelling of the material. German edition of Der Tagesspiegel.
The Russian social network VKontakte has a page for the Rusich sabotage and assault reconnaissance group (DSHRG): they call themselves “volunteer associations,” which, from June 2014 to July 2015, were actively involved in the armed conflict in Ukraine on the side of the separatists.
It also states that with the start of Russian incursions into Ukraine in 2022, the group is taking part in hostilities.
What were the people involved in the BND report
Members of the “Russian Imperial Movement”, according to media reports, have previously participated in hostilities not only in the production of Ukraine, but also in the Middle East.
In 2020, the BBC also regulated communications between Russian and Swedish nationalists, including “bombers” associated with terrorist attacks in Sweden, was trained in the military camp of the same St. Petersburg center “Partizan”, organized by the “Russian Imperial” movement ” .
In a 2015 video interview posted on the page of the Partizan Center, Denis Gariev introduced him as “the head of the militia training center.”
In the first years of the conflict on the basis of production in Ukraine, according to the electronic Kartoteka.ru, he was the chairman and co-founder of the St. Petersburg state organization DND “Reserve Druzhina” (it met at the same address as “Partizan”). And in 2018, it turned into Evrika LLC, which previously received government orders in the amount of more than 10 million rubles. from the structure of the FSB, the FSO, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office and others.
Former Ukrainian participants in military events for the production of regular Fontanka, that the Partizan program, outside of public classes in combat tactics, high-altitude training, precision shooting and military field medicine, also contained a non-public block – for experienced fighters.
The open course program of the Partizan Center, as the BBC wrote, is largely desirable with descriptions of the fortunes that were imputed to wine feelings in the high-profile Network case (they were recognized as simple reviews called Network, which in Russia were made ). in the list of periodicals and banned).
In “Partizan” there was a public training and one of the responses in the “Network” case was the industrial climber Yuli Boyarshinov. It was not possible to achieve verification of the legality of the activities of the center for the defenders of the “Network” case.
In 2020, the US State Department made a contribution of the “Russian Imperial Movement” to the list of international organizations of the world, and Denis Gariev and two of his associates as leaders of the RIM – to a separate list of “specially named” and blocked persons.
The Russian Foreign Ministry then called the US decision “unreasonable.” In 2021, Canada also listed RIM as a reactionary organization.
The Rusich group and its commander Alexei Milchakov, Deutsche Welle are also included in the sanctions lists of Canada.
In 2015, the BBC hesitated about how the commanders of the Rusich group, Milchakov and Yan Petrovsky, received certificates of members of the Union of Volunteers of Donbass collapsible with the commanders of other groups.