The United States may have the feared and dreaded Hells Angels, but over the last two
decades Russia has groomed its own feared motorcycle club- the Nochnye Volki, or The
Night Wolves.
With clubs all over Europe and running a mini-conglomerate of 60 different businesses, the Night Wolves
may not be as widely dispersed as the Hells Angels, but with their ties directly to Vladimir
Putin and taking part in the attempted assassination of Montenegro's president, what they lack
in size compared to the Angels they make up for in ambition.
But who are these feared Russian bikers, and are they really nothing more than another
tool of the Russian government as it wages a new generation of asymmetrical warfare against
its neighbors?
The Night Wolves began as a group of metal heads in the early 1980s, who mixed their
love of Western heavy metal with motorcycles.
Quickly organizing illegal rock concerts in Soviet Union-era Moscow, the group became
the bane of Soviet police forces, until changes brought on by perestroika- or the backing
off from centralized economic planning by the Communist Soviets- allowed the group to
form as Russia's first official motorcycle club in 1989.
Alexander Zaldostanov, the group's founder, was a former dental surgeon who modeled the
group after America's Hells Angels, going so far as to translate the Hells Angels rule
book into Russian and adopting it fully while also making sure all members rode American
Harley Davidson motorcycles.
Delving into the criminal underground, the Night Wolves also displayed a hard nationalistic
streak, and when in August 1991 hardline communists sent tanks to try to topple Gorbachev's government,
the Night Wolves manned barricades that helped secure the Russian parliament.
For their efforts Gorbachev awarded Zaldostanov a medal, and began a close relationship between
the Russian government and the outlaw motorcycle gang that lasts to this day.
With the fall of the Soviet Union and the adoption of free market ideologies in Russia,
the Night Wolves quickly expanded their operations and opened a club called The Sexton in Moscow,
modeled after a club with the same name in West Germany in which Zaldostanov had worked
as a bouncer.
They also launched the “Wolf Wear” clothing line and a tattoo parlor and biker shop, while
also starting to offer their services to local Russian rock bands as security.
Following the Hells Angels play book page by page, the Night Wolves quickly began offering
security services and protection for businesses trying to avoid shakedowns from corrupt local
police and other gangsters, eventually running their own protection racket.
Business owners faced a simple choice: pay the Night Wolves to protect you from corrupt
police and gangsters, or be at the mercy of these corrupt police and gangsters, as well
as the Night Wolves themselves!
Starting in the early 2000s however Zaldostanov began to transform the group, ditching many
of their ties to Western organizations and traditions based on Western motorcycle clubs
such as the Hells Angels.
Their transformation saw them become staunchly anti-western, and adopt a hardline nationalistic
ideology that promoted extreme Russian patriotism.
At the same time they adopted strong ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, even sponsoring
motorcycle pilgrimages to Orthodox holy sites and using the imagery of a 14th century Orthodox
monk named Alexander Peresvet.
Peresvet had died fighting against a Mongol invasion, and his death turned him into a
martyr that inspired a much smaller force to defeat a large Mongol army in a later battle.
Persvet's death turned him into a powerful figure for Russian nationalists, and is seen
as having helped throw off the yoke of Mongol rule for what would become modern Russia.
The Night Wolves deepening ties with the Russian Orthodox Church helped pave the way to close
ties with the Kremlin, as the current leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch
Kirill- otherwise known as Vladimir M. Gundyaev- was exposed as cooperating with the KGB by
former KGB defectors.
We're sure that the head of the largest religious group in Russia being a former Russian intelligence
asset is a complete coincidence however, and not an obvious attempt to manipulate Russia's
religious people.
Whatever the case, The Night Wolves found themselves growing increasingly closer to
the Russian government, with the motorcycle club participating in a rally to commemorate
the election of Dmitry Medvedev as Russia's president- with Vladimir Putin conveniently
named Prime Minister.
Putin would go on to ride with The Night Wolves at motorcycle rallies in Sevastopol and Novorossiysk
in 2010 and 2011, although Putin would use a three-wheeled Harley trike with neon lighting,
which the world's motorcycle fans immediately pointed out was hardly bad-ass.
For a man who regularly takes shirtless pictures of himself horseback riding and shooting guns,
the image of himself on a neon-lit tricycle definitely missed the mark on bad-assery.
However, Putin's grooming of The Night Wolves as an extension of the Russian government
began in earnest during these public ride-alongs, with Putin publicly thanking Zaldostanov for
his service to Russia.
In 2013 Putin would go on to award him the Order of Honor medal for his efforts in youth
patriotic education, and for honoring the memory of the fallen from the Great Patriotic
War- or World War II as it is known in the rest of the world.
If the words “youth patriotic education” make you feel a twinge of revulsion and fear,
then that's probably because you don't live in a third-world dictatorship.
The Night Wolves form of patriotism proved to be just as toxic as any tin-pot dictator's
brand, with their education to the youth involving the rejection of Western culture- despite
proudly riding American Harley Davidson motorcycles- strong anti-feminist views, and violent, hateful
anti-gay propaganda.
The deepening ties between the Kremlin and the Night Wolves were made all the more obvious
when Zaldostanov was chosen to be a torchbearer at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, because if there's
any place in the world were a violent criminal leader is honored by carrying the Olympic
torch, it's in Putin's version of Russia.
The Night Wolves flag was also carried aloft to the International Space Station, where
it was proudly displayed in the Russian section of the ISS.
While spaceflight is supposed to signify the best of humanity, Putin decided that Russia's
contribution would be to proudly display the flag of a criminal organization in humanity's
shared space habitat- a move that drew no small amount of protest from Russian scientists
and science enthusiasts.
With the Kremlin's backing though the group has grown to over 7,000 members and has spread
to over 50 chapters throughout Russia and Eastern Europe.
They have also expanded their services into businesses that range from clothing to security
services and even paramilitary training, while holding and organizing patriotic rallies and
entertainment which are broadcast on Russian television.
Yet for the more oblivious amongst us, the question remains- are they really Kremlin
agents?
Outmatched militarily and economically by its major competitors, Russia has recently
adopted the doctrine of New Generation Warfare, or as it is known in the west, non-linear
warfare.
This new military doctrine mandates the use of non-governmental organizations in a direct
military or quasi-military support role while still maintaining the ability for the Kremlin
to deny that their actions are directly sanctioned.
The group's first major operation as Kremlin agents began during Russia's annexation of
Crimea, during which the group was active a full week before the arrival of Russian
special forces.
They helped organize and man roadblocks and checkpoints, distributed propaganda, collected
intelligence, distributed weapons, and organized protests and civilian self-defense units,
all with the intent aim of supporting Russian military action against the Ukrainian military.
They were also active in intimidating local Ukranian government officials and even captured
and detained Ukrainian military officers.
After the arrival of Russian special forces, they participated in a raid on a Ukrainian
naval base in Sevastopol and the takeover of a natural gas distribution facility.
They were also directly observed carrying automatic weapons of military caliber and
participating in joint operations with Russian Spetsnaz units during March of 2014.
After the successful annexation of Crimea, Zaldostanov and 10 other members were awarded
the official military campaign medal for the takeover, a move which makes it a bit difficult
to believe the Russian government wasn't directly sponsoring and ordering their activities.
Since the initial campaign though the group has continued carrying out the Russian government's
orders, being awarded a contract by the Russian occupied city of Bakhchysarai in Crimea to
provide “youth patriotic education”, which is codespeak for Russian patriotic brainwashing
with threats of violence.
They also used their local chapters and social media platforms as a front across Eastern
Ukraine to recruit fighters to serve in pro-Russian militias, and have even fought and died alongside
these militias.
Members of The Night Wolves are even being used by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of
the Luhansk People's Republic to provide police and security services to include securing
critical infrastructure.
The Night Wolves also routinely produce patriotic festivals and television productions under
the official guise of “youth patriotic education”.
These productions are broadcast on Russian television and often feature blatantly anti-Western,
specially anti-American, themes with heroic Russian figures pitted in battle against corrupt
and degenerate Western antagonists.
In one such production which was broadcast to millions of Russians on television, a character
that looks exactly like the Statue of Liberty attempts to kidnap the snow princess Snegurochka,
a popular character in Russian fairy tales, only to be thwarted by the Night Wolves.
Reminiscent of Stalin's propaganda, the Night Wolves have also adopted strong Soviet values
and ideology, even promoting Stalin as a national hero- a move which doesn't sit well with elder
Russians who still remember Stalin's purges and the mass murder of millions of Russian
civilians.
In 2015 the Night Wolves were assigned a new tasking by their Kremlin bosses, with the
creation of a Russian anti-Maidan movement, the intent of which is to prevent the reoccurence
of the famed colour revolutions that brought down the Soviet Union.
Championing individual rights and democratic values, the colour revolutions weakened the
Soviet Union's hold on its satellite states, and a modern and increasingly authoritarian
Russia sees the potential for a new revolution as fatal to its ambitions to remain in power.
Thus the Night Wolves were tasked with protecting from any such potential revolution, with the
express instructions to show resistance “to the global satanism, the growing savagery
of Western Europe, the rush to consumerism that denies all spirituality, the destruction
of traditional values, all this homosexual talk, this American democracy”- as stated
by Zaldostanov himself.
The Kremlin however is far from satisfied using the Night Wolves in Crimea or at home,
and in 2018 organized a Night Wolves tour through the Balkans, a region which Russia
is very eager to reclaim for itself after losing control after the fall of the Soviet
Union.
They specifically targeted the Serb-dominated region of Republika Srpska, a breakaway region
that covers about half of Bosnia-Herzegovina and wants to secede.
While the US and NATO oppose secession as they consider it a threat to the stability
of Bosnia, and could plunge the region into a new and catastrophic war even larger than
its previous conflict in 1992, Russia openly endorses secession as it views it a chance
to reclaim some of its lost political influence in the region.
Russia continues to deny any official link between its government and military and the
Night Wolves, yet in 2016 during its attempt to overthrow the government of Montenegro
due to its ambitions to join NATO, Night Wolves members were implicated and indicted in the
plan to assassinate its prime minister.
Today the Night Wolves continue to spread across Eastern Europe, though in 2018 the
Slovakian government banned the creation of new Night Wolves clubs in its country, with
a Slovak intelligence officer commenting, “At the height of the Cold War, the USSR
threatened to overrun Europe with thousands of massed tanks and millions of mechanized
infantrymen.
The best Moscow can do now is to send a bunch of overweight, middle-aged bikers on Harleys
to try to intimidate us.”
The officer who wished to remain anonymous, went on to say, “Russia still poses a threat
to Eastern Europe, but the Night Wolves are poseurs who are playing at being special forces.
In a conflict NATO would make short work of the Night Wolves... they are a myth, promoted
by Moscow to compensate for the power that it no longer has.”
In the end there's little doubt that the Night Wolves are an arm of the Russian government,
another tool in their New Generation Warfare that allows Russia to try to influence countries
it can no longer militarily challenge.
Spouting extremist nationalistic views and vitriolic hate speech against feminists and
gays, the Night Wolves claim to be staunch Russian patriots who place the motherland
above all else and reject the inferior democracies of the West- and yet the fact remains that
the majority of its members still ride American Harley Davidson motorcycles.
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