Inside Russia’s Growing Neo-Nazi Networks That Target Journalists

Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian investigative journalist of Ukrainian origin, exposed war crimes committed by Russian forces in Chechnya. Now, the site where she was murdered is being repeatedly destroyed.

The first defacement, on January 18, was quickly claimed by the neo-Nazi group NS/WP, calling it a “tribute to our glorious predecessors,” to BORN—a violent extremist group tied to multiple killings. Two former BORN members were charged with the double murder of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova in 2009. 

Over the following week, at least four more memorials for Politkovskaya—some placed high above street level—were torn down, along with flowers left by residents.

The attacks underscore Russia’s grim irony: while officials denounce extremism, neo-Nazi groups act with relative impunity—particularly when their targets are journalists, human rights defenders, or critics of the state.

Who is Anna Politkovskaya?

Politkovskaya, born in New York in 1958 to a Ukrainian family, was one of Russia’s most acclaimed journalists. She was a vocal critic of the Kremlin and became one of the most prominent reporters covering Chechnya. She was assassinated at the entrance of her Moscow apartment building on October 7, 2006—shot four times at point-blank range, including once to the head. 

Her murder sent shockwaves worldwide, underscoring the already limited press freedom in Russia, and the truth about the murder has persistently been debated. Particularly when one of her convicted killers, Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, a former law enforcement officer, was pardoned in return for serving in Russia’s army to fight in Ukraine in 2023. Khadzhikurbanov was sentenced in 2014 to 20 years in prison for organizing her murder. 

Politkovskaya’s daughter and son said that his pardon is a “desecration” of their mother's memory, Meduza  reported.

Seeking justice is pointless. They’ve thrown justice in solitary confinement for discrediting the authorities.

Anna Politkovskaya’s children

Six individuals were convicted of the murder case and sentenced to between 11 years and life imprisonment. However, Novaya Gazeta , the media organization that employed her, insists that the mastermind has yet to be brought to justice, arguing that the evidence implicates high-ranking Chechen officials.

The investigation ended on October 7, 2021, with the expiration of the statute of limitations. In addition to journalism, she led humanitarian evacuations during Russia’s Grozny bombings, helping displaced civilians obtain food, medicine, and shelter. She provided legal support to families of fallen soldiers and investigated instances of corruption within Russia’s military leadership.

Politkovskaya, Markelov, and Baburova all worked together at Novaya Gazeta, with Baburova widely reporting on the rise of Neo-nazi extremism in Russia. 

Why did I come to despise Putin? For this. For simplicity, worse than theft. For cynicism. For racism. For endless war. For lies. For the gas at Nord-Ost. For the corpses of innocent people that accompanied his entire first term. Corpses that did not have to exist.

Anna Politkovskaya

During a reporting trip in 2001, Politkovskaya was detained by Russian airborne troops, held for two days, and subjected to mock executions and psychological torture.

Natalya Estemirova, a Russian-Chechen human rights activist, worked with Politkovskaya. In 2009, she was also murdered, kidnapped from her home, taken to a forest, and found with gunshot wounds to the head and chest. Her case remains unsolved.

Estemirova was the first to write about a unit of Russian GRU military-intelligence special forces under Captain Eduard Ulman that executed Chechen civilians. Ulman was killed fighting in Ukraine in May 2024, RFE/RL reported.

National Socialism/White Power (NS/WP)

NS/WP, who has taken responsibility for defacing Politkovskaya’s memorial, is notorious for extreme violence. They openly claim to have been “involved in almost all the high-profile murders of the late 2000s”, including allegedly taking responsibility for the murder of Ukrainian MP Iryna Farion in 2024.

NS/WP announced in 2022 on their former Telegram channel ("Let Them Hate, Just So They Fear") that they are moving to a private channel, to “focus on propaganda and ideological preparation” as it's not easy to make the “current generation of youth kill anymore.”

Their former channel is full of personal stories of committing murder, practical instructions on how to produce explosives, conduct terror attacks, and how to get away with violent crimes.

The knife should be taped where the blade meets the handle to prevent blood from getting into the gap. This could give you away later. Therefore, the knife should not be a folding knife.

Excerpt from NS/WP manual

Signature_Illegible (NS/WP)

Their manuals describe how to use Wickr  to discuss criminal activities, how to film attacks while storing the footage on external hard drives, how to browse extremist websites using the Tails operating system , and much more.

One letter, poetically written, describes in detail the night the member committed their first murder, at 14/15 years old.

And when a man in a bright orange vest passed by, they pounced on him, barely able to discern his skin color. The knife had already been clutched in my hand for a long time, and I tried to stab him in the stomach. He covered himself with his hands, screaming, the blade hitting his hands, ribs, and bones. I was doing everything wrong, but I still didn't know how to do it. I was afraid to slash his face, so he'd take his hands off his stomach. I didn't strike his exposed throat. I killed, afraid to kill.

Excerpt from NS/WP letter

Signature_Illegible (NS/WP)

Andrei “Bloodman” Pronskii is allegedly the leader of the group and is suspected of moderating the former channel alongside neo-Nazi Roman Zheleznov (Zukhel), who wrote under the pseudonym "Red Laughter." All of the group’s stories and accounts of murders are published under the pseudonym “Signature_Illegible,” which an anonymous former NS/WP member claims belongs to Pronskii.

Pronskii was subjected to compulsory psychiatric treatment after murdering a Jewish acquaintance and filming the mutilation of the body, analysts reported.

The rise of Russia’s far right

A Russian neo-Nazi group, “Boevaya Terroristicheskaya Organizaciya” known as “BTO,” published a “death list” threatening to murder several Russian journalists, editors, experts, and university professors who cover anti-extremism, CPJ  reported.

All of the alleged targets were named in an email in 2009, sent to the human rights research center, SOVA, which documents the activities of radical nationalist, neo-fascist, and xenophobic groups in Russia. Several neo-fascist websites are posting the names and sensitive personal information, including contact and address details of hundreds of journalists.

These websites target journalists worldwide, not just in Russia, and mostly relate to reporting on fascist movements. NS/WP are part of a growing network of neo-Nazi groups across Russia thriving under the regime of Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin.

Hate-motivated attacks are becoming more common, particularly among Russia’s youth, who openly film and gloatingly share the videos on far-right Telegram channels. 

The Nazi Video Monitoring Project (NVM Project) posts daily screenshots of violent attacks on its Telegram channels. To avoid amplifying far-right propaganda, it does not share the original videos. According to the project, its mission is to raise public awareness of the rise of far-right violence in Russia, assist in identifying perpetrators, and help prevent similar attacks.

In September 2025, NS/WP shot a person in the face while sitting inside a train carriage. In another video, in the same month, NS/WP released a video in which they stab a man to death, according to the NVM Project.

Ultra-right teenagers from different Nazi groups pepper-sprayed and beat a courier with a hammer on January 6, 2025. A group was filmed beating and kicking a man in the head in a local park on January 25, 2025. The published video ends with a photo of Adolf Hitler. 

Videos of indiscriminate beatings, arson, and tear gas attacks are regularly posted on neo-Nazi channels, which the NVM Project says are used as propaganda and recruitment tools.

In an interview with the NVM Project, an anonymous former NS/WP member recounted the aforementioned Pronskii. The former member claims that Pronskii returned to the buried body, dug it up, gouged out the victim’s eye with a knife, and filmed the act on his phone.

The former member also described his own radicalization. Growing up as an orphan, he became interested in history at age 14, which soon shifted toward “ultra-violence.” By 15, he had joined NS/WP.

He claims the group maintained a complete archive of his life and threatened to release it if he did not cooperate, which compelled him to comply. During his time with NS/WP, he became involved in cybersecurity and advised new members on making improvised explosive devices. He also identifies as having been a radical Orthodox Christian while with the group.

We have previously reported how the Russian Orthodox Church has supported neo-Nazi groups. While the church claims to defend Christianity—a faith rooted in peace and humility, far-right leaders preach racial hatred and glorify violence with the Church’s blessing.

While fascist movements spread inside Russia, neo-Nazi groups are fighting in Russia’s war on Ukraine, committing war crimes, remaining true to NS/WP’s slogan, "Live to kill".

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