QUESTION: The @StateDept has designated "the Russian Imperial Movement" as global #terrorists. This is unprecedented. We asked Scott Stewart @stick631 VP of Tactical Intelligence @Stratfor why is this important? Follow this thread for the answer.
ANSWER: "The designation of the RIM will mark the first time it has been applied to a #whitesupremacist group.
While this move does have an important symbolic meaning by demonstrating that the #TrumpAdministration is focused on mitigating the white supremacist threat,
it will also have a significant practical impact. First, designating a group as a foreign terrorist organization allows the government to charge those who attend training, spread propaganda or provide financial support to the group under statutes of material support of a...
terrorist organization. It would also allow members of the group to be designated as specially designated international terrorists and will face U.S. financial sanctions.
The material support of terrorism statute has frequently been used to charge jihadists in the past, but prosecutors have not been able to use it as a tool against white supremacists. This designation would change that and allow prosecutors to proactively charge those...
who receive such training before they can use their newly acquired skills. It is also no coincidence that a Russian group was selected for this first ever designation. Russia has supported extremists int eh US and the US and the West since Soviet times.
The RIM is not the only group operating in Russia that is of concern to Washington. The founder and leader of the neo-Nazi group "The Base" is currently living in St. Petersburg, and it would not be surprising to see them also designated as a foreign terrorist group.
Non-Russian based groups such as the Azov Battalion, Sonnenkrieg Division, Atomwaffen, and others are also likely candidates for this same targeting as the U.S. and its allies attempt to mitigate the threat posed by these organizations and their supporters."
You can read more about Scott Stewart here: stratfor.com/people/189109
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