The “Night Wolves”. This is the name of the ultranationalist Russian motorcycle club, a sort of Moscow copy of the American Hell’s Angels, en route to Germany. Hundreds of bikers gathered on Saturday April 29 in Moscow for the start of a “patriotic” rally which is to pass through eastern Ukraine and end in Berlin. If everything goes as planned. Dubbed “Roads to Victory”, this rally took up the traditional slogan of the Russian offensive in Ukraine: “We don’t let our people down.”
The column of bikers, headed by its leader and founder Alexander Zaldastanov, 60, left from the “Bike-center”, residence of the “Night Wolves” in the south-east of Moscow. “War will not stop spring! This is the main message of today’s celebration,” said Alexander Zaldastanov, interviewed by AFP before the launch of the rally. “Despite all the difficulties facing Russia, our aspiration to victory is eternal,” assured the club’s founder, who claims to be a “friend” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A passage planned in the Donbass
Several rally participants waved Russian and Soviet flags. Some have stuck on their motorcycles the letter “Z”, symbol of the “Russian special military operation” in Ukraine launched in February 2022.
According to the organizers, the motorcyclists must pass on Monday May 1 by Volgograd, ex-Stalingrad, on the Volga. The city was the scene of the bloody battle between Soviet and Nazi troops in 1942-1943, which marked the turning point of World War II towards victory for the USSR and its allies.
They should then continue their journey to the Donetsk region, in Donbass (Ukraine), the epicenter of heavy fighting, where they say they want to distribute humanitarian aid to Russian civilians and soldiers. Organizers plan to complete their rally on May 9 in Berlin, Germany.
“The surgeon”
Behind the “Night Wolves” and this rally is Alexander Zaldastanov, nicknamed “The Surgeon”. This son of a doctor is featured in the book The Mage of the Kremlin of Giuliano da Empoli (Gallimard) as a former cosmetic surgeon specializing in the reconstruction of the jaws, remember Release. This man of nearly 2 meters founded his pack of “Night Wolves” in 1989.
The group of bikers spread, towards the end of the 2000s, to several former Soviet republics and Balkan countries. It would have between 7,000 and 10,000 members, divided into about 45 sections, specifies the Danish daily The politics. The “Night Wolves” were seen on January 9, 2023 on the streets of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s second largest city.
As related Newsweek, hundreds of people gathered that day to watch a parade marking “Republika Srpska Day”. It commemorates the day in January 1992 when the Bosnian Serbs proclaimed their separation from Bosnia. Their objective at the time: to secede from the Serb-populated regions of this Balkan state and merge with Serbia. Furthermore, in Montenegro, specifies politics, the local chapter of these Russian bikers tried, in September 2022, to stop pro-Ukrainian protests.
Earlier, these ultranationalists made a name for themselves by supporting the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014. During the ensuing war in eastern Ukraine, they sent nearly 100 members to the front line, where they fought, with their leather jackets, some at the cost of their lives. Alexander Zaldastanov is also targeted by Western sanctions for his support for the Russian annexation of Crimea. In response to his sanctions, he was decorated with the Order of Merit by Vladimir Putin for “his action in the patriotic education of young people”.
Fan of Joseph Stalin, Alexander Zaldostanov never misses an opportunity to pay tribute to his model, details Release. In Volgograd, on August 23, 2013, he organized an “international patriotic bike show” in his honor, financed by the local authorities. In April 2015, several hundred “Night Wolves” wanted to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany. They were already planning to link Russia with Berlin, through Belarus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria. But they are turned back at the Polish border and had to turn around. This ban had angered Russian diplomacy.
When Putin rolls with the “Night Wolves”
As explained The politics, behind the leather jackets, bandanas and shiny motorcycles is a highly politicized ultranationalist organization. Even scattered in different countries, all sections of the “Night Wolves” have sworn to protect the Christian Orthodox Church. Several times a year, they organize pilgrimages to visit holy places. Their members are resolutely anti-woke and do not accept, for example, LGBTQI rights or the feminist movement, pointe the International Mail.
Vladimir Putin would see an advantage in using the “Night Wolves” to promote his vision of Russia’s place in the world. On the handlebars of his motorcycle, the Russian president himself rode with these ultranationalist bikers during their 2019 parade in Sevastopol, Crimea, explains The politics. Alexander Zaldostanov also received medals from his hands for having defended the Russian cause in Crimea.
In a report dated 2015, Alexeï Navalny, the leader of the Russian opposition today in prison, revealed that the “Night Wolves” of Russia had received for several years the equivalent of 664,000 euros per year from the Kremlin, reports the Danish daily. This money would have made it possible to buy, among other things, land in the Crimea and to build a center for young patriots.
