The Night Wolves Motorcycle Club

Abstract

The Night Wolves Motorcycle Club (NWMC) is a nationalist paramilitary biker gang financed by the Russian state (Zabyelina, 2017). The Group is active in EU and non-EU countries throughout Europe where they promote a strong right wing and pro-Russian narrative. Members of The Night Wolves have fought with pro-Russian rebels in the Ukraine, and the club maintains chapters in the Donbass and Crimea (Zabyelina, 2017). The presence of the NWMC is growing in Europe alongside other right-wing groups. The club recently expanded with a new base in Slovakia (Lawrence, 2018). Members of the group have been denied entry to and expelled from EU countries. Canadian and US governments placed sanctions on the NWMC in December 2014 for the group’s support of pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine (U.S. Department of the Treasury, 2014). The potential for the NWMC to foment disorder and act as a paramilitary force is a security threat to European governments and Canadian forces in the theater. This brief recommends that the NWMC be monitored for their influence on Russian minorities and nationalist groups in Eastern Europe.