Raids, denunciations, and Orthodox blessings Inside Russian Community, the far-right group thriving under Putin’s wartime regime
Of all the far-right groups in Russia, none has attracted more attention lately than Russian Community. In just a few years, it’s gone from one of several major ultra-nationalist groups to the undisputed leader. Its members carry out raids on migrants, file denunciations against anyone who challenges their worldview, and appear to enjoy ties with everyone from security officials to Russian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Kirill. Here’s what we know about wartime Russia’s most visible far-right movement.
On May 4, the St. Petersburg-based outlet Fontanka reported on a deadly fire in an apartment building in Vsevolozhsk, a town in Russia’s Leningrad region. The fire broke out in a seventh-floor apartment, where the homeowner’s 46-year-old son was present along with two acquaintances: a 24-year-old woman and a 37-year-old man from Armenia. The man died in the fire, and the woman was later found by rescue workers below the apartment windows, severely injured.
According to witnesses, a group of men wearing symbols of the far-right group Russian Community forcibly entered the apartment shortly before the fire began. Claiming to be police officers, they broke down the front door and attacked the homeowner’s son — who was hiding in the bathroom — using pepper spray and a stun gun. They then tried to force their way into a room where the other man and the woman had barricaded themselves. At some point, smoke began pouring from the room. The man’s body was later found inside.
Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into negligent homicide. According to the outlet Moika 78, investigators suspect that the Armenian man set the fire himself in an attempt to drive out the intruders, but the flames spread quickly and overwhelmed him. The woman reportedly jumped from the window to escape the blaze.
Fontanka also published footage from a security camera in the building that shows several men dressed in black. A patch identifying the Russian Community is clearly visible on one of their sleeves. In response, the group’s St. Petersburg chapter told Moika 78 that the video “looked very much like a frame-up,” claiming its members only wear patches at official events.
If confirmed, the break-in would mark the most serious known incident involving the Russian Community since its formation.
“If these murderers [...] really are from Russian Community, then the whole shady operation needs to be shut down,” Russian media personality Ksenia Sobchak wrote on Telegram. “Not only should the thugs in the video go to prison, but so should the Nazi leadership behind them. We need to find and identify the people who authorize these raids, these methods, the impersonation of police, arson, and murder.”
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Raids and denunciations
Russian Community (“Russkaya Obshchina,” in Russian) is a far-right group that describes itself as a network for “uniting Russian people through mutual support.” Formed in 2020, its founders include former Omsk City Council deputy speaker Andrey Tkachuk, the former coordinator of an anti-abortion movement Yevgeny Chesnokov, and Orthodox Christian channel Spas TV host Andrey Afanasyev, according to investigations by BBC News Russian and Novaya Gazeta Europe.
In less than five years, the group has grown into one of Russia’s most prominent and media-savvy far-right organizations. It boasts more than a million YouTube subscribers, over 700,000 followers on VKontakte, and nearly 650,000 subscribers to its main Telegram channel — a figure that quadrupled in the past year, according to the SOVA Center. The group also operates around 150 regional and city chapters across the country.
Russian Community raises money to buy equipment for Russian troops fighting in Ukraine. It offers men training in hand-to-hand combat and weapons handling, organizes camouflage-net-weaving workshops for women, and arranges church outings and holiday gatherings. But it is best known for vigilante raids, public denunciations, and its targeting of migrants and LGBTQ+ individuals.
Below are just some of the incidents linked to the group in recent years:
- In July 2023, riot police raided a Muslim prayer house near Moscow. Russian Community claimed credit for initiating the operation.
- In January 2024, the group posted video of a law enforcement raid in Yekaterinburg where workers — including migrants from Kyrgyzstan — were forced to march single file.
- In February 2024, activists from the group reported a café owner in Lyubertsy who had asked a soldier to leave after he began acting disruptively. The woman was detained and fined 45,000 rubles ($550) for “discrediting” the army.
- In March 2024, the group posted footage of a raid on Pose, a gay bar in Orenburg. That incident led to Russia’s first-ever criminal case under the new law banning the non-existent “LGBT movement.” Two of the bar’s employees were charged.
- In July, nationalists marched in the Krasnodar Krai town of Korenovsk following Russian Community claims that “40 Kurds” had allegedly assaulted six locals.
- In August, officials postponed a Yekaterinburg concert by former Agatha Christie band member Gleb Samoylov after a complaint from the group. It’s also lobbied to cancel concerts by other performers.
- Also in August, members of Russian Community conducted an anti-migrant raid at a produce market in Yekaterinburg, letting passersby steal fruit and vegetables from vendors. Police stood by and did not intervene.
- Later that month in Samara, the group reported the owners of a sushi restaurant over the venue’s name (Sushkin sЫn, a play on the Russian phrase sukin syn, or “son of a bitch”) and a portrait of the Virgin Mary on display. Authorities opened a case for “offending religious feelings.”
- In September, a man originally from Uzbekistan gave up his city council seat in the Moscow suburbs after Russian Community and the right-wing Orthodox news network Tsargrad TV accused him of fraud involving humanitarian aid for Russian troops.
- And in April 2025, the group organized a demonstration at a Yekaterinburg bar called Ogonyok to “enforce patriotism,” after the venue reportedly refused entry to a soldier who fought in Ukraine.
Friends in high places
Russian Community openly supports the country’s current political leadership and works with law enforcement on a scale previously unseen among Russian nationalist groups, according to Vera Alperovich, an expert at the SOVA Center, who spoke to BBC News Russian in the summer of 2024.
Its cooperation with authorities extends beyond migrant and LGBTQ+ raids — during which, according to eyewitnesses, members of the group have used force — and includes direct appeals to Alexander Bastrykin, head of Russia’s Investigative Committee. Bastrykin has gained popularity among far-right supporters for his anti-migrant rhetoric.
“[Contacting Bastrykin] is [Russian Community’s] primary and default response to almost any event,” Alperovich said. “And as experience shows, those appeals often prompt a swift reaction.” According to the Telegram channel Ostorozhno Novosti, Russian Community ranks among the country’s top five most prolific informers — and, in terms of the effectiveness of its denunciations, trails only censorship activist Ekaterina Mizulina.
The group also maintains close ties with the Russian Orthodox Church and collaborates actively with its leadership. In one case in 2023, Russian Community members refused to help a woman in Nizhnevartovsk who was being abused and stalked by her boyfriend, citing the fact that she had terminated a pregnancy. And in 2025, Archbishop Savva of Zelenograd spoke at the Russian Community convention, delivering the personal blessing of Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
One of BBC News Russian’s sources, a nationalist from Nizhny Novgorod, described Russian Community as a group that “backs Putin, the special military operation, and Orthodox fundamentalism.” In his view, that loyalty comes with financial reward. “The core of their funding is Moscow money,” he said.
Alperovich shares the belief that at least some members of Russian Community are paid for their work. The organization’s rapid growth in just a few years — and the scale of its activities — is difficult to explain otherwise. It has poured millions of rubles into “charitable” initiatives, built a large social media presence, held conventions and festivals, launched a merch line, and even developed a smartphone app.
The Russian Community app includes an SOS button for contacting the group’s self-styled “people’s militia.” To register, users are required to upload a passport photo — something the group claims helps verify that a new user is “Russian.” Other nationalists, however, see it as proof that Russian Community is part of a “security service plot for surveillance of the far right.”
Whether that’s true or not remains unclear — as does the question of where exactly the group’s funding comes from. Officially, Russian Community says it relies on donations from members. But journalists believe the group likely has at least one major financial backer.
One name that frequently comes up is Orthodox tycoon Konstantin Malofeev, who has previously bankrolled far-right projects. He’s also known to have worked with two of the group’s three co-founders. However, Novaya Gazeta Europe noted that Malofeev appears to be more clearly linked to Russian Druzhina — a group that emerged from a 2024 split within Russian Community. That connection, the outlet argued, casts doubt on the theory that Malofeev is Russian Community’s financial backer.
