He was awarded the Medal "For the Return of Crimea" by President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin for his actions in "Helping Crimeans to self-determine".

In the late 2000s, the club began holding rallies in the former Soviet Eastern European countries, promoting Slavic culture.

[7] Zaldastanov and other club members visited Crimea just prior to the Russian annexation in 2014, and publicly supported the change of power on the peninsula.

[2] Zaldastanov was one of the official torchbearers for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, and received the Order of Honour, a Russian state decoration, from Putin in 2013.

[8][9] Zaldastanov has been sanctioned by several governments, including the United States and Canada, for the Night Wolves' involvement in the unrest in Ukraine in the mid-2010s.

[7] The American government has accused him of personally taking part in the annexation of the Crimean peninsula by Russia in March 2014, by participating in “the confiscation of Ukrainian weapons with the Russian forces”.

[11] In July 2022, Zaldastanov was sanctioned along with other Night Wolves leaders by the EU for the group’s propaganda efforts in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that began earlier the same year.