[Free Beacon] The FBI has obtained intelligence information indicating a Russian ultra-nationalist group linked to bombings in Sweden and subversion in Ukraine offered paramilitary training to U.S. alt-right, neo-Nazi activists.The Russian Imperial Movement (RIM), a St. Petersburg-based group, contacted organizers of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., and suggested members of American white nationalist groups travel to Russia for a paramilitary training course called Partisan, according to U.S. officials.
Officials familiar with intelligence reports provided no other details of the intelligence and both the Russian group and some American white supremacists involved with Charlottesville denied accepting the training offer.
Partisan provides military-style training for what the group believes is a period of forthcoming "global chaos." The course was blamed for radicalizing three Swedish right-wing activists convicted in 2017 of several bombings in Sweden.
RIM would not say if paramilitary training was offered to U.S. alt-right activists but did say none had taken the course.
"The course Partisan is open to all," the group said in a statement. "But none of the American alt-right or other activists participated in it."
The FBI information is an indication of Russian efforts to back right-wing extremists in the United States, and could trigger further FBI counterintelligence or counterterrorism investigations into the activities of American white supremacists.
FBI spokesman Brian Hale declined to comment.