On Telegram, the channel of the nationalist and Christian Orthodox Russian Imperial Movement (RIM), which the U.S. government has designated a global terrorist organization, posted calls to join its Imperial Legion combat branch and training courses for volunteers. The new recruitment drive is connected with the war in Ukraine.
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A Call To Fight
On June 25, 2022, the RIM channel posted on Telegram a recruitment call for the Imperial Legion, its combat branch. The post states that RIM has been fighting since 2014 in Malorossia ("Little Russia," the term used in the Russian Empire for the territories of modern-day Ukraine) and adds that for the past three months, the movement has been fighting in a "second campaign." The conflict in Donbass, whose active phase was in 2014-2016, is the first campaign mentioned, while the Russia-Ukraine war is the second.
The post adds that prominent RIM member Denis Gariyev, who heads the Imperial Legion, is currently in St. Petersburg recruiting fighters for the group, and it urges the channel's followers to join RIM, the "only Russian Orthodox monarchist detachment fighting in this war."
"We will be victorious together. Godspeed. Russians advance!" the post concludes.
On June 29, the group's Telegram channel published a post announcing a partial mobilization of the Imperial Legion due to changes on the Ukrainian front. The post states that the Partisan Volunteer course, created by RIM in 2014 to train and educate Imperial Legion candidates, has now been reinstituted. According to the post, the difference between the current recruitment drive and the one held in 2014 is that today, candidates will have official status with the Russian Ministry of Defense. The post urges those with a military education to get in touch with RIM or to visit the Imperial Legion base in St. Petersburg. The base is located on Drezdenskaya Street.
The post promises social benefits and a uniform during the training.
