Stoking White Nationalism
Stoking White Nationalism
From New York to Ukraine: The myriad, shady dimensions of ultra-right actors
Chatham, NY — On a chilly Monday morning in early October, residents of a small, quiet upstate New York town awoke to find what appeared to be white supremacist leaflets on their front lawns. Small zip-lock bags containing flyers with white nationalist messages had been thrown out of a vehicle window in an apparent drive-by action the night before.
The local newspaper, the Times Union, reported, “The materials — flyers calling for ‘activists’ in a struggle against ‘white racism’ and one promoting a documentary called ‘Europe: The Last Battle’ — were thrown from cars in sandwich bags weighted down with dry beans, according to residents.”
This episode was the latest in an apparent string of activity in the Chatham area by an explicitly racist white nationalist group, White Lives Matter (WLM). Late last year, a few WLM stickers were found on lampposts, street signs, or hiking trails in or around Chatham. Local media outlets reported these discoveries as “growing signs of hate group activity” in the area.
In February 2022, the activity escalated to an actual in-person demonstration held by three individuals who drove to the center of Chatham and held a banner for a few minutes on the village green. The figures concealed their identities by covering any identifying characteristics with ski masks and gloves. Their banner read “White Lives Matter New York” and their demonstration lasted only a few minutes — just long enough for video footage and photographs to be taken by one participant. Then the group piled back into their vehicle and vanished as quickly as they came.
The demonstration was so short most residents were unaware of the event, but because the local media covered it, word quickly spread throughout the area. Many residents were understandably shocked and perplexed by what appeared to be an escalating display of white supremacy in their small, tight-knit community.
While many Chatham locals said the activity appeared out of place and seemed “fake,” they were unaware that the White Lives Matter organization was part of an international network that included the initiatives of a young entrepreneur and white nationalist, Robert Rundo, who had trained with Ukraine's neo-Nazi Azov Battalion and attended events planned by its political wing.
Despite having been indicted by the US Department of Justice, Rundo parades freely across Europe, adding to longstanding suspicion that he is protected by powerful elements. As he posts photos of himself strutting through NATO countries like Greece, Rundo has become the poster child for national security hawks lobbying the US government to remove barriers protecting US citizens from being designated as terrorists.
Another layer of suspicion looms over WLM thanks to its powerful and highly choreographed social media operation. It appears to be run outside of the US and is aimed at drawing as many people — and their personal information — into its network as possible. Is this extremism really homegrown? Even without this crucial background on WLM, local residents in upstate New York have serious doubts about its authenticity.
Among the locals I spoke to who viewed the White Lives Matter activity with extreme wariness was Richard Green, a resident of Chatham, New York for over 21 years.
“I read one of the flyers and found it deeply suspicious. The whole way it was written, for example, using the term ‘white folk’ — that’s not how people refer to themselves. Regarding the protest on the village green, the whole thing looked fake. The people holding the banner looked like they were wearing fatigues. There was something that hit me as inauthentic about the whole thing,” Green stated.
When asked if he thought the participants were local Chatham residents, Green responded, “No, no. I am not aware of anybody who lives in the vicinity of Chatham that holds those kinds of views and would do something like that.”
Another resident I interviewed, Kelly Crine, felt similarly. “I’ve just never seen or heard of anything like this happening around here before. I let my son ride his bike around town. I think everyone feels safe here. It definitely feels out of place.”
Chatham is nestled in the rolling farmlands of Columbia County in upstate New York. Situated near the Hudson River, just 45 minutes south of Albany, its quaint New England appeal brings many city weekenders to enjoy artisan cheeses, pies, brews, and baked goods offered by small shops along Main Street’s handful of blocks. According to the most recent census, Chatham has a population of 1,630 people, out of which 86% are white and 6% are black.
“The whole thing is very bizarre. There really aren’t very many people of color in our town. The majority are probably immigrant workers. We’ve never had any rumblings of any kind of racial discontent, certainly never like this. It’s very hard to believe there are white people here who feel like their existence is under threat and are worked up about it,” said a third resident who asked to remain anonymous.
These sentiments have led some residents to question who these “activists” really are. Many cannot believe they have any connection to the local community.
Chatham is not the only small town in New York to have seen unusual White Lives Matter activity over the last year. Other small, upstate towns such as Woodstock, Rosendale, New Paltz, and even a tiny town in central New York called Little Falls have experienced some sort of demonstration or distribution of WLM materials.
While the extremist spectacles spread beyond New York State, they maintain several consistent characteristics: all occur in rural, mostly white communities, and are conducted by small handfuls of anonymous individuals. In many cases, the residents of these areas have responded with a mix of shock, confusion, and deep suspicion.
Many wonder whether this sudden surge of activity reflects an organic, growing grassroots white nationalist movement taking root in their community — or if it has emerged from somewhere outside. If so, who exactly is behind it?
Media coverage from the upstate New York region over the past year identified one man as present at demonstrations in North Greenbush, Woodstock, and Chatham, suggesting at least some White Lives Matter participants are traveling from town to town. Local media speculated that this individual was some kind of leader.
The local Times-Union newspaper reported that the supposed “leader” of a band of white supremacists “caught on video in North Greenbush posting propaganda” was “seen wearing a Rebel News press identification badge.”
Rebel News is a right-wing independent news outlet based in Canada. It came under attack by the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the prominent role it played in covering the trucker’s convoy, a grassroots uprising that challenged Canada’s vaccine mandate and lockdown policies. Rebel News was also attacked for crowdfunding the legal defense of truckers arrested for their participation in the protests. Trudeau ultimately crushed the protests by invoking Canada’s draconian Emergencies Act and summoning Canadian spy agencies to seize the bank accounts of hundreds of convoy supporters.
Reached by the author for comment about the Times-Union report, Rebel News CEO Ezra Levant insisted the press badge spotted in North Greenbush was “a fake Rebel News ID.” Levant declared, “I do not know that person’s name, but I can confirm that he has no connection with Rebel News whatsoever and is unknown to us.”
The Rebel News executive further speculated, “I would guess that this person was impersonating Rebel News as an agent provocateur, to do embarrassing things that would redound to our discredit. Or to use our good reputation with protests to gain the trust of people he would then 'interview' for ulterior purposes.”
White Lives Matter’s Online Presence
The banner displayed at the early October 2022 demonstration in Chatham not only read “White Lives Matter,” but featured a link to the WLM Telegram group in identical letters below the group's name.
When studying the Telegram groups related to WLM, new layers of suspicion appear. WLM’s main Telegram account is supplemented by a national, “official” channel that broadcasts news and actions from all over the country, as well as from other countries in the world. Additionally, the group maintains state sub-groups and a channel with a connected chat for every state in the US. When joining the main national channel, visitors are encouraged to join the group in their own state to connect with like-minded people and “get active,” i.e., start organizing.
The official WLM channel was created on April 7, 2021, and demonstrated no activity for five days. On April 12, the channel first featured a photo along with a few posts promoting marginal actions that had taken place around the US. On April 14, whoever runs the channel submitted a post pleading for members to remain patient. “The local channels will be released once we have a trusted team of admins,” they promised.
By April 20, not only had the channel creator supposedly found “trusted” admins for all fifty states in the US (making it possible to launch a group in each state), but they somehow managed to recruit competent admins to run subgroups in dozens of countries around the world.
At the same time, they created and published a list of links to 45 Telegram groups around the country and world, all in the same post on the same day. That’s an impressive amount of grassroots organizing in less than a week! Perhaps WLM was not an organic organization at all, but rather a rapidly developed, centrally organized, top-down implementation of a global network of online spaces posing as a grassroots movement.
Questionable Telegram Operations
To date, the formula witnessed on WLM’s Telegram channel — one central national channel with subgroups for every state — is indicative of other highly questionable operations to recruit people into online spaces for dubious reasons.
On April 24, just over two weeks after the group was born, it published its guidelines. One rule outlined the need for new members who join to have a “pfp” (profile photo) and an “@username” (an identifying tag or handle). For anyone familiar with Telegram, these are the two elements of an individual’s account that can furnish personal information — especially if you supply both identifiers.
First, a pfp usually contains “exif” metadata, which reveals specific details about the device from which the photo originated, including the possible location of device, make, model number, and more. An @username does something similar. It can link a user to all of their account’s activity over time, even if the activity took place in other groups. The repeated demand by WLM admins for prospective members to provide both of these key nuggets of personal data to join raise serious questions about the group’s motives.
Additionally, the main owner/admins of the groups seem to struggle with proper English grammar, with diction strongly reminiscent of foreign trolls. For those familiar with bots and crypto scammers, broken English and misuse of proper grammar is a clear, immediate red flag.
Examples of WLM Telegram’s misuse or improper use of the English language include its mangling of the term “activism” in statements like, “submit your activisms,” or “join in the activisms.”
In other cases, admins constantly misuse the word grassroots, referring incorrectly to “grassroot activism.” They also constantly interchange subjects from “our” to “your.” Countless other examples of poor grammar reflect a high likelihood the individual writing the posts does not speak English as a first language. This poor grammar is reflected in every subgroup across the U.S.
Below is a prime example of the word salad found in WLM posts:
Additionally, a clear manipulation of the minimal media content on the Telegram accounts is apparent. Videos and photos are re-edited and re-posted to produce the illusion of a constant flood of submissions from grassroots activists. Content published each day on the groups is presented as legitimate documentation of activity that has just occurred.
But scrolling back in time through the group’s feeds reveals little actual activity and only a small handful of participants, with the content constantly recycled to present the sense that members are out in the streets every day. The language that accompanies these social media posts aims to amplify the illusion. For example, “We are being flooded with submissions from the large network of NY activism.”
The deceptive tactics employed by WLM’s social media channels help illuminate the strategy of the group — or whoever is behind it.
Clear Propaganda Techniques
The October 2022 demonstration on the Chatham green felt to many locals like a staged photo op. It appeared as though the individuals had no intention of accomplishing anything other than capturing a few images for social media. They succeeded only thanks to local media reproducing WLM’s photos in their own coverage. Had newspapers not published these photos, they would not have reached anyone.
WLM’s propaganda campaign relies heavily on iconographic white media of yore. For example, the white nuclear family from the ‘50s, or images of stereotypically Aryan characters. The nature of the propaganda requires time, resources, and forethought. As with the launch and structure of the social media dragnet WLM created, the propaganda is calculated and remarkably consistent.
WLM is engaged in a relentless drive to recruit new members and rile people to action. Without fail, each post baits members in some way, instructing them to reach out to the admins (via a bot) to “start the vetting process.” The main tactic is shaming. Almost every single post submitted to these channels includes a message of negative reinforcement: berating potential recruits for failing to sign up for their vetting. Here are some examples:
“The time for action is now! There are two types of people on this planet. Pro-white and anti-white. If you remain stagnant while your people are being the victims of systematic genocide which do you think that make you.”
“We don’t need internet trolls crying about how our lands are lost. We need warriors to take up the sword and shield of our ancestors and fight for the future of our people! What are you waiting for?”
Here are some of the slogans featured on WLM Telegram channels which aggressively nudge followers to sign up for the organization — and thereby volunteer their personal details to whomever is behind the social media operations:
INACTION IS RACIAL TREASON
We are the cool guys. Don’t be a loser.
Are you scared? C O W A R D
. . . you need to hold the flag for our race - otherwise, you are a traitor.
. . . join the brave TODAY!
Ask yourself if you want to be a hero or a zero.
Interestingly, slogans relying on the nudge word “inaction” are similarly deployed by other online initiatives like Operation Take Back America (OTBA), which has been confirmed as an astroturf operation. The chances that these two separate groups — White Lives Matter and OTBA — could have been set up in precisely the same way with one main channel and state-level subgroups, using precisely the same propaganda techniques and even similar language is considerable.
Despite the frantic efforts by those operating WLM's channels to recruit new members, media coverage posted in their subgroups makes it abundantly clear that only a minuscule handful of individuals are barnstorming around the state to hoist White Lives Matters banners and slap stickers on lampposts.
A review of each state’s WLM Telegram channel within the national network confirms that each one relies on the same small set of individuals to repurpose content to provide the illusion of a massive wave of grassroots activity. It’s also clear that upstate New York, for some odd reason, represents one of only a few states in the country that has witnessed any real-life activity — or what WLM described in typically broken English as “consistent grassroot activisms.”
“Almost immediately, I was like, those are feds.”
Will2Rise (W2R) and Media2Rise (M2R) represent the second and third incarnations of the Rise Above Movement (RAM), a white nationalist movement co-founded in California in 2016 by a New York native named Robert Paul Rundo.
Marketing itself as a “combat-ready, militant group of a new nationalist white supremacy/identity movement,” RAM was originally called the DIY movement as it morphed from W2R to M2R. Rundo’s unique brand of white nationalism focuses on “Active Clubs” formed out of the mixed martial arts culture that has developed within the European nationalist scene over the last few years.
Just after Rundo’s organization came together, another clearly suspicious white nationalist group was born. As with WLM, Rundo appeared to be connected to this one as well. Called Patriot Front, the group staged absurdly theatrical demonstrations and marches. They put on display groups of a dozen or so young men clad in matching khaki battle-dress-style pants, blue parkas with matching facemasks, and bearing flags emblazoned with the group’s logo.
Conservative outlets such as Gateway Pundit have speculated that RAM and Patriot Front are infiltrated or covertly run by US intelligence agencies. Joe Rogan famously (or infamously, depending on the source) called “bullshit” on Patriot Front, proclaiming, "There has never been a thing that I’ve ever seen, where almost immediately I was like, ‘those are feds.’” Referring to Patriot Front’s march on Washington, NewsMax host John Bachman echoed Rogan, commenting, “we've had these issues with the feds” before.
Whether or not Patriot Front has been infiltrated by federal law enforcement like so many extremist groups before it, its cartoonish paramilitary aesthetic — which almost resembles that of federal law enforcement — invites dark speculation almost by design.
RAM and Patriot Front share media teams, cross-promote constantly, encourage membership in each other’s groups, and continually collaborate such as an August 2022 mixed martial arts competition in Huntington Beach, California called Birth of a New Frontier.
At this event, members of Patriot Front, Will2Rise, various Active Club groups, and other nationalist organizations came together for the first time in person. The collaborative management of Will2Rise and Patriot Front is known and freely discussed on the various social media platforms belonging to these groups. WLM seems to be the new kid on the block, yet is also intimately embedded within the management of the other two groups. The “Birth of a New Frontier” event was promoted by all groups involved.
RAM and Patriot Front’s management of online content and recruiting clearly stem from either a single team or a small handful of teams. This can be seen, for example, in the way that Telegram admins for WLM also help run Active Clubs. The online management across these groups is shared, and the content creators use the same or similar language, logos, mottos, and PR techniques.
A closer look at nationalist, paramilitary groups
Unlike White Lives Matter, Patriot Front and Will2Rise have demonstrated slick propaganda techniques, including the use of high-end video and production equipment to cultivate a visually appealing aesthetic befitting a world-class paramilitary group.
Patriot Front attempts to attract wayward male followers by promising to instill a sense of order, form, masculinity, and brotherhood through its activities. Its culture focuses on sculpting the body, sparring with fellow members, and hiking the great outdoors to revel in the land they claim was “conquered, not stolen.” Through overt use of photographic staging, filtered imagery, colors, and symbols, Patriot Front propaganda immerses followers in a world of trust, loyalty, manliness, and discipline.
As with the WLM channels, media content is reworked and reposted to give the illusion of constant activity. Below is an example of one clearly staged photo op that produced myriad photos which were then re-worked through different filters and posted repeatedly over time.
How many pictures do we need to see of a masked man reading Patriot Front’s membership manual while sitting in the woods? Is this what white nationalist activism really looks like?
Will2Rise propaganda relies almost exclusively on black-and-white photos and videos, a dramatic visual contrast with imagery familiar to Patriot Front. The Black Sun symbol that has recently become popularized by the Azov Battalion in Ukraine is the primary symbol used by the Active Clubs. Their various social media channels invite you into a world that seeks to marry idealistic European culture with hooliganism. A favorite slogan is “cultured thug.”
Scrolling through Will2Rise propaganda on any given day is certain to deliver a consistent stream of images like the following: heavily tattooed, muscular white nationalists boxing; close-ups of said tattoos; the Black Sun symbol, including as tattoos; attractive Aryan babes; sculptures, usually Greek, of Adonis-like physiques; bros flexing in front of the mirror; tomes and quotes from German enlightenment thinkers; references to Sparta, and memes from the movie Fight Club. All of it delivered to followers through a black-and-white filter.
The Will2Rise movement draws heavily on the symbolism of Ukrainian white nationalists, especially the Sonnenrad Black Sun, and other Nazi-related runic symbols displayed by organizations like Ukraine’s state-sponsored Azov Battalion. The obsessive tattooing familiar to Eastern European racist groups is also present in Will2Rise, as well as an interest in mixed martial arts fight clubs like the kind Azov maintains in the heart of Kiev.
The aesthetic and ideology expressed by Will2Rise is a clear reflection of the sensibility of its founder, Robert Rundo, who was indicted by the FBI for training with Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov Battalion and its overly white nationalist political wing, the National Corps.
Though Rundo is considered a dangerous fugitive wanted by US law enforcement, he continues to walk freely throughout Europe, posting photos of himself inside NATO and U.S.-aligned countries with reckless abandon.
A pivot toward Azov Battalion
The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal was among a handful of journalists to report on a 2018 FBI affidavit that detailed Rundo’s formation of the Rise Above Movement —now known as Will2Rise.
The FBI had indicted Rundo and several members of RAM for conspiracy to riot after engaging in violent attacks on Antifa activists during three rallies in Orange County, California. In a separate case, four other members of RAM were indicted for the central role they played in instigating the violence that took place at the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, NC, which resulted in the death of a counter-protester. The FBI affidavit revealed the opening of an extensive investigation into RAM’s activity over the course of 2017. Among the most significant details in the affidavit related to the ties Rundo established with ultra-nationalist groups across Europe, especially in Eastern Europe.
In the years leading up to Rundo’s indictment by the FBI, the Bureau was engaged in an investigation of his RAM group, which likely provided the feds with insights into the proliferation of other white nationalist groups across the country. It also led the FBI to Ukraine where they found Rundo and his RAM buddies training with Azov. This in turn led the Bureau to conclude that Azov was “radicalizing United States-based white supremacy organizations.”
The FBI declared:
“On August 1, 2018, an Instagram user 'tagged' Right Brand Clothing’s account in a post containing a photograph of RAM members during their trip to Germany, Ukraine, and Italy meeting with Olena Semenyaka, the leader of the International Department for the National Corps, which is a political party in the Ukraine that was founded in 2016 out of a regiment of the Ukrainian military called the Azov Battalion. Based on my training and experience, I know that the Azov Battalion is a paramilitary unit of the Ukrainian National Guard which is known for its association with neo-Nazi ideology and use of Nazi symbolism, and which is believed to have participated in training and radicalizing United States-based white supremacy organizations.”
The affidavit described a trip Rundo took to Europe, and ultimately Ukraine, where he trained with the Azov Battalion before bringing the experience he gained back home to the US. Rundo participated in a mixed martial arts competition at Azov’s Reconquista Club gym in Kiev, then appeared at a Paneuropa conference hosted by Olena Semenyaka, the lead recruiter for Azov’s National Corps.
As the international secretary of Azov’s National Corps, Semenyaka is one of the most prolific promoters of Eastern European fascism. As Blumenthal noted, despite her having been photographed bearing a Nazi flag and throwing up a Sieg Heil salute, Semenyaka has been “a welcome guest on Ukrainian nationalist TV to promote her campaign for the release of Ukrainian nationalist activists held by Russia.”
Semenyaka was even accepted for a fellowship at the prestigious Vienna IWM Institute in 2021. IWM was established by Timothy Snyder, a vociferously anti-Russian Yale professor of history who has enjoyed personal facetime with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He is currently raising money for the Ukrainian military through an official Ukrainian government initiative.
When asked by the Austrian outlet Zeit why he awarded Semenyaka a fellowship, Snyder claimed that he “didn’t google her” before photos of her posing with swastikas appeared on social media. Though IWM revoked Semanyaka’s fellowship, the neo-Nazi Azov paramilitary organization which she represented received direct training from the US and Canadian militaries.
Given the close ties between the US military-intelligence apparatus and the Azov Battalion, which receives direct support from the US-supplied Ukrainian military, it is hard not to wonder if an allied white nationalist group like RAM benefitted in any way from State backing. If so, its growth could be seen as a potential case of blowback.
But given the clearly inorganic activity within the social media structure of RAM/Will2Rise, more sinister scenarios about the network’s real purpose could also be entertained.
Robert Rundo – Thug Extraordinaire
To better understand the RAM/Will2Rise network, how it formed, and who may currently be managing it, it is necessary to take a closer look at Rundo’s life before forming the organization.
Rundo was first jailed in 2009 at the age of 19 for stabbing an MS-13 gang member five times, including in the throat and chest, in his hometown of New York City. He accepted a plea deal and served 20 months in prison. In 2017, having formed the initial iteration of RAM, Rundo and his fellow members traveled to multiple rallies across California with the intention of engaging in violence with counter protestors. That same year, some members of RAM traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia to attend the notorious “Unite the Right” rally that ended with the death of a protestor.
An odd pattern emerged over the course of 2017 that raised questions about Rundo’s real relationship with law enforcement: the lack of charges brought against him and his cohorts as they rampaged across the country.
The seeming refusal by authorities to rein in RAM despite numerous acts of violence inspired an investigation by the mainstream investigative outlet ProPublica called, “Racist, Violent, Unpunished.” The report detailed California local law enforcement's seeming determination to not file charges against Rundo and his pals even after Rundo punched a police officer multiple times in the head. The violent incidents detailed in the report took place in California and involved Rundo attacking multiple counter-protestors, including a defenseless journalist. When ProPublica’s reporters asked local law enforcement why they had not sought charges against Rundo, the police department responded by claiming they did not have enough evidence to identify him.
“Rundo, RAM’s founder, was arrested and detained for assault on a police officer, but Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley declined to file charges,” ProPublica noted. “We determined we didn’t have enough evidence to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt," Teresa Drenick, an Alameda County deputy district attorney, told the outlet.
But several individuals, including representatives from the media company whose journalist was assaulted, claimed they had provided solid video proof of Rundo's crimes to the police department on multiple occasions, including to “top brass”. What's more, Rundo’s attack on a police officer resulted in his arrest, so the police clearly knew who the responsible party was in that situation. Yet after being assaulted by an arrestee, the police officer complied with a department decision to not press charges — a highly unusual scenario.
By 2018, as national media began to take interest in the issue of Rundo and his band of white nationalists carrying out sprees of violence with impunity, four RAM members were indicted for their role in “Unite the Right” and slapped with federal rioting charges. In 2019, the four were sentenced, and three wound up serving time. Only a few weeks after the charges in the first case, Rundo and three others received identical charges in a separate case for their violent role in the three California rallies.
Rundo on the run
In the space of time between the two indictments, Rundo fled the US and attempted to return to Ukraine. Federal travel restrictions resulted in him being nabbed and rerouted back to the US while changing flights in London. Shortly thereafter, he attempted to flee the US a second time, walking across the Mexican border and making it as far as El Salvador before being discovered by local authorities and apprehended by the FBI.
On June 3, 2019, the charges against Rundo and others were once again dismissed, this time on First Amendment grounds. The judge ruled the interpretation of law was overbroad. The prosecution immediately communicated its intent to appeal, but before the motion was filed in March 2020, Rundo fled again. With a passport in hand and seemingly free from travel restrictions, he made his successful escape to Eastern Europe.
How Rundo was able to leave the country this time around remains a bit of a riddle, however. The Los Angeles US Attorney’s office claimed to have been “keeping tabs” on Rundo, and the FBI affidavit classified Rundo as a “Tier One Operative.” Additionally, he had already fled two times, which should have registered him as an obvious flight risk. Federal prosecutors had made clear they were immediately appealing the dismissal of his charges. The hearing to reinstate those charges was set for November 17, 2020.
Rundo landed in Serbia, and for the first few months was able to operate in the open. Though the RAM movement back in the US began to visibly flatline without his presence, he exploited his social media platforms to push his brands and promote his white nationalist activities in Eastern Europe. At no point did he shy from sharing his location.
RAM’s social media shows video and photos of Rundo hanging out in cafes and working out in gyms at the time. He even managed to incorporate a business in Belgrade, Serbia. Then, in February 2021, a US appeals court reopened the case against him. Two of the four defendants showed up to the first hearing on March 4. According to court filings, Rundo and another defendant were absent and their lawyers had lost all contact with them long before that date.
The story of the international white nationalist organizer grows muddled from this point on. Absent from his own hearing, it seems reasonable to assume US authorities would consider Rundo a fugitive and actively pursue his extradition. However, Rundo took an undeniably nonchalant approach to his life in Serbia, posting as usual on his social media platforms, hawking his ultra-nationalist clothing line, and sharing photos of his life there. He even launched a new initiative, Media2Rise, for producing documentaries and promoting white nationalist events. There is no indication Rundo had gone underground or taken any measures to protect himself against extradition.
But certain media elements have painted a very different picture of the supposed fugitive. No outlet has been more obsessed with locating and “outing” Rundo than Bellingcat, the US government-sponsored intelligence cutout that brands itself as a leader in “open-source investigations.”
Bellingcat, a cutout investigating a cutout
In its November 18, 2020 article on Rundo’s whereabouts, Bellingcat claimed to expose Rundo for having taken up residence in Serbia. (In spite of all his open galivanting, he did seem to have been hiding his whereabouts at the time.) Bellingcat also claimed to have reached out to Serbian authorities to report Rundo’s location. The collective took credit when Rundo was allegedly deported from Serbia to Bosnia and Herzegovina on February 11, 2021.
Rundo apparently attempted to cross the border into Bosnia, was initially turned away because he did not produce a negative PCR test, then entered the country right under the nose of its border patrol, even though he was considered a national security threat. (Bosnia is a stalwart US ally created out of the ashes of NATO’s military assault on Yugoslavia.)
Svevlad Hoffman, an adviser to the Bosnian Border Police director, remarked to Bosnian media, “At that point, the Border Police did not have at their disposal the information that Rundo posed a threat to national security, because the OSA [Bosnia's Intelligence and Security Agency] did not provide the information in time.”
While Newsweek claimed Rundo was being “tracked down by Bosnian police,” a local media outlet, Balkan Insight, openly questioned whether the intelligence community was aware of Rundo’s movements and was deliberately standing aside. The investigative reporting network asks:
“His activities raise serious questions concerning the response of authorities in Serbia and Bosnia, which have not replied to enquiries about Rundo’s whereabouts.”
In December 2021, Bellingcat published its second article claiming to have geolocated Rundo back in Serbia. Then, almost a year later, Bellingcat ran yet another piece in its “Where’s Rundo?” series, claiming its team of online sleuths had geolocated Rundo to Plovdiv, Bulgaria. They did this by using two photos posted to the Telegram channel of Rundo’s clothing brand, Will2Riseshop. The two photos had been taken in proximity to a ruin with two columns, leading the Bellingcat journalists to claim the ruin was Roman and could be located in the Plovdiv region of Bulgaria.
While Bellingcat's attribution of Plovdiv as Rundo’s location in social media photos seems credible, its investigators do not say when the images were taken. Further, Bellingcat lifted the photos from the most public Telegram channel associated with Rundo (one of many) and made no reference to the content he was sharing on his more personal channels at that same time.
This matters because on his personal channel he was sharing content at the time that placed him in Greece. Indeed, the outlet completely omitted Rundo’s photos from Greece, not even mentioning them beyond a passing comment in its article.
Below is what Rundo posted to his personal channel in the window of time between October 22 (the date of the first photo reported by Bellingcat), and November 29 (the publication date of Bellingcat’s article).
On October 29, Rundo posted to his personal Telegram channel a video showing him at the tomb of Leonidus in Sparta, Greece.
On October 31, he posted a video of himself and a friend sparring in Greece, as well as a photo of him and a friend posing in front of the Temple of Poseidon.
On November 2, he posted a video of himself with friends roaming the back alleys of Exarchia, a district of Athens he claimed was the “Portland” of Greece.
On November 20, he posted a video from the Temple of Zeus.
On November 23, he posted a video of himself and a friend exploring the Demitrios shipwreck near Glyhio, Greece.
The timeline of Rundo's posts suggests that his photos from Greece are more recent than those from Bulgaria. And yet, Bellingcat left the media from Greece out of its investigation almost entirely.
On January 22, 2023, Rundo posted a photo to his Telegram channel which was taken by an American college professor who claims to have spotted Rundo at a restaurant in Athens back in September 2022. The professor wrote:
“Rundo looks very much like a self-described American fascist I had a direct encounter w/ in Athens, Greece, around 2022. He & bro were talking fascist lore @ next table, and when I confronted them claimed fascist ID + w ties to Serbia. They also stiffed the bill. Same look.”
Rundo shared the photo and description to his channel, with a response that acknowledged it was him. If accurate, that again places Rundo in Greece all of last year.
Bellingcat’s omissions do not stop there. The site’s articles refer to Rundo’s Telegram channels, of which this author follows closely, but never provides a link to any of them. They claim they do not want to promote his channels this way. As a result, though, readers have to do the work of tracking the information down and researching the content to confirm whether Bellingcat’s reporting is accurate. Either that or take Bellingcat at its word.
Additionally, for some odd reason, Bellingcat only lifts content from Rundo’s most active channel, Media2Rise shop, which is his clothing line channel. They totally disregard the myriad more private channels in which he posts updates, including his own Rundo’s Spot channel, though they do acknowledge those channels exist.
Secondly, no mention is made of the broad, coordinated propaganda campaign that is run under Rundo’s name, both internationally as well as in the US. Just a cursory probe into this campaign reveals that a much grander network of activity is taking place than one fugitive individual could possibly manage. Why does Bellingcat not raise questions or concerns about this well-coordinated propaganda campaign? Its coverage continually paints Rundo as some washed up American white nationalist grifting off his brands, too stupid to outsmart Bellingcat, but who somehow manages to stay one step ahead. Bellingcat vacillates back and forth between “look how dumb Rundo is,” and “Rundo is an extremely dangerous national security threat.”
Bellingcat is portrayed in mainstream media as the gold standard of open-source investigative reporting, and has won a raft of awards from elite media consortiums. In fact, the outlet was credited by Western corporate media with identifying the Russian intelligence assets supposedly responsible for poisoning the turncoat Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury, England in 2018. It did so with a critical assist from British intelligence which furnished Bellingcat with the two alleged Russian perpetrators’ passport info. The media outlet has also claimed to have fingered Russian FSB agents who were stalking the now-imprisoned Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny.
Yet, according to a 2021 MintPress News expose by Alan MacLeod, “How Bellingcat Launders National Security State Talking Points Into The Press,” Bellingcat “. . . is funded by Western governments, staffed with former military and state intelligence officers, repeats official narratives against enemy states, and serves as a key part in what could be called a ‘spook to Bellingcat to corporate media propaganda pipeline.’” The investigative site specializes in presenting Western government narratives as independent research.
Despite its expert sleuthing skills and intel support, Bellingcat curiously has not been able to effectively geolocate Rundo as he flaunts his freedom in the middle of NATO territory. So the question is: Are Bellingcat’s sponsors within the British and US governments sincerely interested in seeing the fugitive captured and returned to justice in his country of birth?
Rundo: the #4 top terrorist who curiously is not all that dangerous
How dangerous is the fugitive Robert Paul Rundo? US authorities such as the FBI do not seem to be working terribly hard to find him. Bosnian state security was apparently unbothered that he wandered into their country. Maybe Rundo is not considered that extreme of a threat. Given the half-hearted attempts to capture the fugitive, how dangerous could he possibly be?
On the Counter Extremism Project’s Top 20 most dangerous extremists around the world, Rundo is listed as number four. According to the list, the only three more dangerous extremists in the world are Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah; Hossein Salami, Commander in Chief of Quds Force (a branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps); and Ismael Haniyeh, Hamas’ political chief.
Who is listed after Rundo? Number five is Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Supreme Leader of the Taliban.
This places Rundo, a white nationalist thug and social media influencer, right between the head of the Afghan guerilla force that ran the US military out of the country after two decades of fighting, and the leader of the Lebanese militia that dealt the nuclear-armed Israeli military a bloody nose during its 2006 conflict. Is this some kind of joke?
According to the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), Rundo is “. . . charged with conspiracy in inciting political riots and now on the run from US authorities in Eastern Europe.” [emphasis mine]
Surely it doesn’t need to be pointed out that the individuals with whom he finds himself listed are part of extremely well-established, well-organized, well-funded, highly developed militant operations with state backing and an immense amount of firepower. Rundo, though networking with other nationalist groups, lacks any of the might and power of these other men. Even within the global white nationalist movement, he seems to have been superseded by more influential, dangerous, and extreme individuals.
Is the Counter Extremism Project some dime store organization run by crackpots or clowns? Let’s take a look: The CEP was founded by national security professionals with direct ties to the UN, the DHS, the Council on Foreign Relations, and other powerful international institutions. It is a global nonprofit that helps shape policy, monitors extremist networks around the world, and provides grants to national agencies such as the US Department of Homeland Security. So, no, it is not some hole-in-the-wall group that can be easily dismissed.
The CEP’s extremist list states that Rundo is “on the run from US authorities in Eastern Europe.” Yet he has not had to run very hard or far to elude his supposed hunters among the US government. Recall that the FBI managed to apprehend Rundo in Central America before he escaped again. Are they simply unable to find him now?
Back in 2021, Bellingcat claimed to have dispatched a journalist after geolocating Rundo to a particular neighborhood in Serbia. The journalist was then able to identify Rundo’s place of residence. He just “happened” to be in the right place at the right time and overheard his voice. He somehow found Rundo on a veranda just behind the journalist doing pushups. Yet, once again, Rundo managed to slip through the hands of the authorities. One never gets the impression Rundo is a highly intelligent fugitive, consistently dodging the law through guile and sophisticated tradecraft. It does not add up.
Given the domestic terrorist agenda in the U.S., Rundo certainly could be an asset. Imagine being any one of the number of RAM members who served time for following Rundo’s lead, hearing about or watching footage of Rundo traipsing around Eastern Europe with his new nationalist friends
There were some red flags with a couple other RAM members as well. One who worked for the DoD and another who served no time in federal prison because he testified against the others. Regarding Rundo in particular, the pattern of going “unpunished” continues to this day. It is possible he has gained protection from the same international forces that are supposed to be apprehending him. He certainly does not have the resources of the Taliban, Hezbollah, QUDS force, or Hamas to help protect him from a global intelligence manhunt. If he is truly that dangerous to the international community, there is no good reason he isn’t in custody.
The CIA’s involvement in training paramilitary groups in Ukraine comes directly out of a well-known, well-worn CIA playbook. Training paramilitary groups who produce radicalized individuals who are utilized in some capacity at some point to further the US agenda is also a well-known, well-worn element of this playbook.
Whether Rundo has been “turned out” (say when he took a plea deal and served fewer than two years for almost killing a man) and consciously works as an intelligence asset or not, he is certainly extremely useful to both the current US national agenda and a broader international agenda the likes of which the CEP are pushing. With the war on “domestic terrorism” ramping up at home, most recently reflected by the latest DHS alert bulletin, the US government has a vested interest in removing some barriers that stand in the way of being able to actually classify US citizens who are part of white nationalist groups as terrorists. One argument for removing such barriers that has gained traction is “the increasing development of ties between white supremacist American citizens and ultra-nationalist groups overseas.”
This Politico article outlines the mounting pressure on the Biden administration to change the way it classifies terrorist organizations, to make going after US citizens easier. It points out the growing trend of domestic white nationalists networking with and providing material support to international white nationalist groups. And who is used as the example of this growing trend? None other than Robert Paul Rundo. That’s right, Rundo has become the poster child for the argument that the US government needs to remove barriers that currently protect US citizens from certain designations that have only legally been used for foreigners.
According to the State Department:
“The cross-border reach of the American white supremacist movement and its use of violence is especially concerning to some law enforcement experts who say the Biden administration is failing to utilize the most powerful tool in its legal arsenal to enable law enforcement to monitor hate groups more closely. Under US law, foreign white supremacist groups can be designated as foreign terrorist organizations. Providing “material support” to such groups is a federal crime. To be designated an FTO, a group must be foreign; it must threaten the security of the US or US nationals; and it must participate in terrorist activity or have the capability and intent to commit terrorism,”
The US has no domestic terrorism statute — a long standing source of disagreement among policy makers. But if a global hate group were designated an FTO, said former FBI Supervisory Agent Ali Soufan, authorities could share intelligence on American citizens connected to the designated group. US allies and prosecutors could charge Americans who provide material support to it.
The part of Rundo’s story involving international ties always stood out as a bit odd. How did Rundo and his friends manage to connect with some of the most radical and extreme paramilitary groups in Europe? But here we are, Rundo is free, living it up in Europe, and because of the extensive network he has developed, he is being used as an excuse to remove restrictions placed on our government to keep it from barreling further down a path of stripping the rights of citizens.
The Active Clubs movement Rundo started in the US, currently under the name Will2Rise, is alive and well. It looks like there was an activation in early 2022, resulting in a new local Active Club cropping up somewhere in the US every few weeks or month. Rundo’s clothing brand and media project are growing as well. What was once a small, localized group in California with Rundo at the lead, has developed into part of the coordinated, well propagandized network outlined in the beginning of this piece.
There is little doubt that Rundo is aware he exists as the face of a large, coordinated operation that uses brands, images, propaganda, and sophisticated social-science nudging to recruit individuals into this network. There is little doubt that Rundo isn’t himself managing his own movement at this point. The growth and activity mirror and compliment that of Patriot Front and White Lives Matter, all three of which share the same online structure, tactics, resources, language, management, and purpose: Recruit!
WLM has built up its online social media platform to the extent that it now provides a variety of resources, including statistics on race, various manuals, propaganda materials like stickers and flyers, and a list of required reading and watching. Recently, an interesting text was added to the list of required reading: A manual from Romania on how to build a nationalist movement across an entire nation (referred to as a “Legion”). Why Romania? At 122 pages long, the document basically covers every possible aspect of how to indoctrinate, militarize, and radicalize an entire society while making them believe they are the ones building an organic movement. It is a blueprint for implementing a nationalist movement in a whole country, in this case within the context of Eastern European culture.
What the white nationalist movements of Eastern Europe have to do with Chatham, New York is the million dollar question. Are the individuals who disseminate flyers in Chatham disturbed, racist locals who happened upon the concept of the WLM movement online and have taken the initiative to bring it into their own community? Or is it the case, as reflected in the nefarious online spaces connected to this group, that our intelligence community is aware of these growing networks, symptoms themselves of CIA blowback, and are simply not interfering because it’s useful to them?
Or has it been the intention of the state apparatus all along to develop this sophisticated campaign in order to cultivate and nurture extremist behavior which will legitimize the government in its continuing destructive domestic terror agenda? Clearly there is a documentable chain reaction that has taken place. We can uncover a direct relationship between Chatham, New York, a suspicious national network of white nationalist groups, the international nationalist scene, the CIA training of some of these nationalist groups, the international intelligence community, and the ensuing steps the US could take as a result. The question is, has the chain been built intentionally one link at a time?
Excellent read. I believe that these, “grassroot movements,” are being used in the same manner that certain narratives were used to bring in the Patriot Act. It seems to be the same cycle of creating the problem and providing the solution that has repeatedly been used to gain more power and control. Thank you for being so thorough- many good questions and things to research. So glad I found your Substack!
This is extremely good and incisive. Are you compiling a book?