The EU on Friday added The Base — a neo-Nazi group founded in America and active in several other countries — to its “terrorist” list, subjecting it to immediate sanctions.
“The Base is an organization of right-wing extremists involved in terrorist acts, which was founded by Rinaldo Nazzaro in 2018,” the Council of the European Union said in a statement.
The sanctions comprise a travel ban, a freeze of any assets in Europe, and a ban on EU citizens or companies providing funds to the group.
The Base seeks “to accelerate the downfall of the United States government, incite a race war, and establish a white ethno-state,” the FBI said in court documents reported by the BBC.
Nazzaro, a US citizen, started the group in July 2018 as a network for radical right nationalists readying for armed conflict and then moved to Saint Petersburg and took up Russian citizenship, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank.
The Base members operate in the United States and several other countries, including Britain, Australia, Canada, Sweden and the Netherlands, according to think tank and news reports and parliamentary documents.
The Counter Extremism Project, an association focused on extremist groups, said Nazzaro worked for the US Department of Homeland Security between 2004 and 2006, and reportedly with US forces in the Middle East on counterterrorism — a role that gave him top-secret clearance.
Nazzaro resigned his US national security position after developing his white nationalist beliefs, the Counter Extremism Project said.
The CSIS think tank said there were concerns that “The Base poses a notable threat of attracting radicalized members from the US military” and in law enforcement.
Another think tank, the Soufan Center, started by a former FBI agent, said Nazzaro reportedly boasted of his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin.