Neo-Nazi group with US links may be backed by Russian intelligence

Before a law enforcement crackdown hobbled it in 2021, the Base established itself as one of the most active neo-Nazi accelerationist groups — a term for groups that seek to hasten societal collapse by violent means.

Now the Base has rebuilt, to the extent that last year it earned a spot on the European Union list of sanctioned terrorist groups.

A sudden burst of activity in Ukraine has renewed suspicions that the Base and its leader, Rinaldo Nazzaro, are linked to Russian intelligence and security services.

“The Base’s activities in Ukraine suggest that there is more to this group than meets the eye,” said Steven Rai, author of a report released on Tuesday by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD).

“While there is no smoking gun that proves state sponsorship of the Base, there are numerous indicators that should at least raise questions as to whether they are being covertly supported by Russia.”

Suspicions of Russian influence have persisted since the group’s founding in 2018 due to the fact that Nazzaro, a former FBI intelligence analyst and onetime U.S. civilian analyst supporting military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, now lives in St. Petersburg.

According to the ISD, Nazzaro has continued “to fundraise and provide strategic direction to the group from Russia.”

Rai said the Base’s use of Russian communications applications such as VKontakte, RuTube, Mail.Ru and the social network Odnoklassniki, along with its use of inauthentic accounts, or bots, to spread its message, raise suspicions about potential Russian state support.

The ISD report also flags the Base’s offer to pay recruits in cryptocurrency to carry out acts of sabotage and violence, “which implies a level of financing that is unusual for neo-Nazi accelerationist groups and raises questions about where the funding originates.”

'Hate camp'

The Base first captured U.S. headlines from 2019 to 2021, as Nazzaro purchased a remote property in eastern Washington state while organizing online recruits to meet for a “hate camp.”

They hoped to practice guerilla warfare, with the long-term goal of establishing a white ethnostate in the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

The group’s decline began in early 2020 with the arrest of U.S. members for harboring an AWOL Canadian service member, building a machine gun to carry out an attack at a pro-gun rally, and plotting to murder an antifascist couple.

News reports and research point to the Base having been active in 18 countries, including the U.S., U.K, Russia, Ukraine, Italy and Sweden.

Rai says Nazzaro’s “profile alone raises questions about whether the Russian government would seek to exploit his access and capabilities by recruiting him as an intelligence asset.”

As reported by The Guardian, in March the Base began posting propaganda on social media announcing a campaign in Ukraine, signaling that the group has shifted its target for a white ethnostate from the Pacific Northwest to the Carpathian mountains near the Hungarian border.

According to TheGuardian, the Base made posts on the social media platform Telegram offering to pay volunteers to carry out attacks on “electrical power stations, military and police vehicles, military and police personnel, government buildings, politicians.”

In May, the Base created a new Telegram channel announcing the launch of "Project White Phoenix," described as an effort "to create a white ethnostate in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine.” Appealing to Ukrainians, the post announcing the project called for capturing territory "for the future of the all whites in the brewing chaos. Mountains and borders in the region are a force multiplier making guerilla warfare possible and inevitable."

Such efforts in Ukraine align with Russian objectives, Rai notes.

“At a minimum, the Base’s activities may divert Ukraine’s attention away from countering Russian aggression,” the ISD report says.

“More nefariously, the Base could be part of Russia’s hybrid warfare tactics, which employ a mixture of conventional military forces, clandestine operatives and unwitting agents to sow chaos.”

Emails from Raw Story to two addresses associated with the Base went unreturned.

Nazzaro has consistently denied that he is an agent of the Russian state.

"This accusation is a lie," Nazzaro said on Telegram in May. "I have never had contact with Russian security services."

Nazzaro also said financing for the Ukraine campaign "comes from crowdfunding donations not from me personally."

Zakarpattia Oblast has previously been targeted by a Russian influence campaign.

In 2018, three members of the pro-Russian neo-Nazi group Falanga were arrested and charged in connection with an arson attack on a Hungarian cultural center in the city of Uzhorod.

Polish prosecutors ultimately claimed that the attack constituted an act of terrorism intended to “publicly incite hatred between Ukrainians and Hungarians” and cause “disruption of the political system.”

Witnesses implicated Manuel Ochsenreiter, a pro-Russia member of the far-right Alternative for Germany party. Ochsenreiter fled to Moscow, where he died of a heart attack in 2021, aged 45.

Looking for a U.S. leader

While Ukraine appears to be the Base’s current focus, the group has shown a resurgence in the U.S. and Western Europe.

The ISD reports that Europol coordinated arrests of five Base members in six European countries in November 2023, followed by arrests in the Netherlands and Italy in 2024, and in the U.K. earlier this year.

Last summer, Nazzaro posted on his personal Telegram account that he was looking for a U.S leader at a salary of up to $1,200 a month, TheGuardian reported.

During the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the Base posted a video on Telegram celebrating an arson attack on a ballot box.

Earlier this year, the Base made an appeal for financial support to pay for a paramilitary training exercise in the U.S. Since the beginning of the year, the group has posted photos of members in the U.S. carrying firearms and wearing tactical gear.

It is unclear if the training exercise took place or if the Base appointed a U.S. leader.