The Russian side of this conflict is said to be getting
help from a white supremacist terrorist org
It's called the Russian imperial movement which is now
being linked to attacks against pro Ukrainian targets
in europe scripts. New senior national investigati
correspondent Mark Greenblatt scored a rare exclusive
interview with the leader of that Russian organization
back in 2021. He's been tracking these guys for a long
time. Mark, who exactly are they targeting Well, good
evening chance. What they're doing is is that they're
targeting high level targets in europe now and these
extremists are really going after any governments that
are funding or arming Ukraine and what terrorism
experts are telling us is that the longer this war
stretches on the more of these attacks we may see
intelligence expert Colin Clark says nearly one year
into the war in Ukraine. As Russia's campaign s
it's turning now to white supremacists and neo nazis to
launch a new terror campaign across europe targetin
allies and supporters of Ukraine. Now Clark says a
recent letter bomb campaign including against the U.S.
Embassy in Spain has been credibly linked back to
Russia and its proxies. Once the U.S. Embassy in Madrid
was attacked, it allowed the US intelligence community,
greater authorities to collect on what exactly was
happening. Although the letter bombing campaign failed
to kill anyone did injure several people. And more than
that I think symbolically it's proof of concept to show
what the Russians can do through proxy forces to
destabilize european countries at Will Clark says
investigators have zeroed in on the Russian imperial
movement known as rim, it's the only white supremacist
organization, the State Department designated as
terrorists. And now it's being linked to the letter
bombs scripts. News has been reporting on the shadowy
extremist organization in for years. In 2021 before
Russia invaded Ukraine Rims leader told me in an
exclusive interview that his group continued to operate
a paramilitary training camp from ST Petersburg Russia
that provided weapons and explosives training to anyone
who wanted to learn, including known extremists. How
much would it cost me to go through your training tod
In all case it is $500. What would I learn if I came He
will learn how to shoot using a firearm. He will go to
the shooting range to undergo firearm training. Medic
training is also part of the course as well as tactical
training. Us officials designated Stanislaw Vorobiev b
name as a terrorist separate from his group. When he
and I spoke, Vorobiev confirmed that Rim had
sympathizers in spain and was having success making
friends in other parts of the world too, including the
U.S. We are currently in the process of gathering like
minded people throughout the world, including people
from Australia America and new Zealand. I'm definitely
concerned about what the Russia could do on U.S. Soil.
We've got a long standing links between our own far
right groups and those that receive propaganda support
potentially even financial support on telegram rim
posted photos like this from the front just a few weeks
ago, but rim also denied sending the letter bomb saying
terror is not our style, our organization is poli
and does not deal with intelligence or terror. Ju
last week, rim called out for a fresh new round of
recruits to join its military wing. Now a State
Department official would not c on rim or say if
Rim had anything to do with those letter bombs saying
that they're going to leave it up to the government of
Spain to take the lead on this investigation. The
government of Spain, by the way, did make an arrest in
this case. What I can tell you is that Rim has been
ramping up activities internationally and in Ukraine
and recently they've been posting busy on twitter
rather on telegram saying things like this is our
religious war and we will win it. What they mean by
that is that unlike the Russian military itself, th
actually look like they see themselves as soldiers in a
war for the Russian Orthodox church and chance, the
guys are quite serious about what they're fighting for
Mark, could you explain because a lot of the people
attracted to it are not part of the Russian Orthodox
church. I wouldn't think how is recruitment happening
because you have this 74 year old man suspected in the
letter bombing. I guess in my mind, I pictured it more
of a social media thing rather than a face to face
relationship analog era. We nee to know what to look
out for. How are they recruiting Well, the Russi
imperial movement about 10 years ago started going into
europe. I mean physically they started flying to europe,
going to conferences in places like paris, they even
have a very strong contingent in spain people that are
actually on the ground recruiting. It's thought to sen
people back over to ST Petersburg and train at that
camp. So this is a face to face operation that they are
intentionally doing in order to find sympathizers on
the ground. And sometimes even if people won't sign up
to fight for the Russian orthodox Church, they can look
at the situation and say, look if the enemy of my enemy
is going to be my friend, we can team up and and cause
some trouble. Mark Greenblatt, each new iteration
really just adds another layer of concern here. Thank
you so much. And for a deep dive into what's motivat
the Russian imperial movement and their adherence. You
can hear more of Mark's reporting in a one hour special
airing this week on NPR affiliates nationwide. The
is called revealed scripture news partner with reveal
on this week's episode, which you can also find by
downloading it right now through your favorite podcast
app