[3] By 1989 the club was consolidated as an informal motorcycle group bearing the name "Night Wolves", during the Perestroika era of the Soviet Union.

As of the beginning of 2018, the Night Wolves now have chapters in Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Australia, Slovakia, Belarus, Philippines, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Czech Republic and North Macedonia.

[12] They also contributed to the invasion of Crimea by patrolling the streets of the peninsula with unmarked soldiers sent from Russia[13][14][15] and fought for the pro-Russian side in the Donbas war.

[19] Their August 2014 show in Sevastopol, supporting the annexation of Crimea by Russia and depicting Ukraine as a country controlled by "fascists", was attended by an estimated 100,000 people and broadcast by Russian state television.

[21][22] In a January 2015 interview with RIA Novosti, Zaldastanov stated that "When the kids come to us, we don't cut costs on special effects or efforts to convey to the children a feeling of true drive and danger.

[40] In December 2014, the United States announced sanctions against the Night Wolves[41] due to their involvement in attacks on a gas distribution station in Strilkove and the Ukrainian naval headquarters in Sevastopol, and recruitment of fighters for the war in Donbas.

The representative of the Hells Angels in Russia told the Moscow Times, "We call each other brothers and avoid being linked to any religious and political organizations, as these are things that divide people.

"[42] According to Peter Pomerantsev, the Night Wolves admire Joseph Stalin,[5] the Soviet dictator and one of the three main Allied leaders of World War II.

"[19] According to Alexei Magister, the president of a biker club linked to the Night Wolves, "We are not harming anyone, we are just honouring the memory of those who fell to destroy Fascism".

[43] In January 2015, the group's leader, the Ukraine-born Alexander Zaldastanov, expressed support for a Russian Anti-Maidan movement which said it was ready to use violence to stop anti-government protesters.

[44][45] In an interview, Zaldastanov said "For the first time we showed resistance to the global Satanism, the growing savagery of Western Europe, the rush to consumerism that denies all spirituality, the destruction of traditional values, all this homosexual talk, this American democracy.

[44] At a February 2015 "Anti-Maidan" rally in Moscow organized by Zaldastanov, popular slogans included "We don't need Western ideology and gay parades!

[51] Mark Galeotti, writing in The Moscow Times, described the Night Wolves as "a case study in the Kremlin's strategy of adopting and taming potentially hostile groups and using them precisely as tools of control—counter-counterculture, as it were.