In a historic move, the US State Department has designated a Nordic neo-Nazi group and three of its top officials as terrorists. This marks only the second time in history that the US has labeled a foreign White supremacist organization and its leaders as terrorists.
The Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) and its top officials – Tor Fredrik Vejdeland, Pär Öberg, and Leif Robert Eklund – have been named as Specially Designated Global Terrorists by the department, according to spokesperson Matthew Miller.
This is the first time the Biden administration has made such a designation of a White supremacist group. The Trump administration previously designated the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM) and its leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
The NRM, a transnational neo-Nazi organization founded in Sweden in 1997 with branches in other Nordic countries, has been banned in Finland since 2020, according to the State Department.
The designation of NRM comes amidst warnings from US officials about the continued threat posed by White supremacist terror groups globally. The State Department highlighted NRM’s violent activities based on racist, anti-immigrant, antisemitic, and anti-LGBTQI+ ideologies.
Additionally, NRM members have been involved in collecting weapons and explosives, as well as organizing training in violent tactics. The State Department emphasized that the designation is part of a broader effort to address the transnational threat posed by racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.
The move will restrict NRM members from accessing the US financial system, aiming to impede their ability to fund their extremist activities.
