Neo-Nazism in Russia emerged during the late 1990s from skinhead and football hooligan subcultures, as well as increasing anti-Chechen sentiment driven by the First Chechen War.
Walking Together, a pro-Putin youth movement, reached out to White Society-88 [ru], one of Russia's largest skinhead gangs, by recruiting from among the latter's members to bolster its own ranks.
[3] The colour revolutions were a series of peaceful protests and popular uprisings that spread throughout the post-Soviet states during the mid-2000s, aimed primarily at anti-corruption and democratic reformism.
These groups, particularly hooligans, were used as a form of intimidation against Russian oppositionists, such as a clash with the National Bolshevik Party in 2005 that injured ten and a 2009 attack on environmentalists opposing plans to build a road through Khimki Forest.
[2] Following the murders of human rights activist Stanislav Markelov and Novaya Gazeta journalist Anastasia Baburova in 2009, a crackdown on members of Russia's neo-Nazi community began.
The Eurasian Youth Union, a non-Nazi but nonetheless far-right organisation which also participated in counter-protests, has been described by Finnish researcher Veera Laine as being among the groups supported by the Russian government under the managed nationalism policy.
The Base, an American neo-Nazi terrorist organisation, is run from Saint Petersburg, and members of the global far-right have been given support by Russia in spreading Anti-Western sentiment domestically, as well as serving as election monitors for the Russian government abroad.