The Base – a neo-Nazi accelerationist network – recently claimed responsibility for the assassination of Colonel Ivan Voronych, a Ukrainian intelligence officer, in Kyiv. The attack should serve as a wake-up call for U.S. policymakers. For years, The Base has operated in a legal gray zone, recruiting American extremists, disseminating propaganda, and promoting racial war. While the group has been designated as a terrorist entity by four member nations of the Five Eyes alliance and the European Union, the U.S. government has yet to follow suit. That inaction is no longer tenable.
The Kyiv assassination marks a dangerous escalation, with an extremist group engaging in international political violence. This is not an isolated act but a continuation of The Base’s ideology of “accelerationism,” which calls for collapsing governments through terror and chaos.
By striking a foreign intelligence target during wartime, the group has demonstrated both the intent and operational capability to influence a global conflict by acting on behalf of a foreign adversary – characteristics that are similar to those of foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) already designated by the State Department, including Hamas and Hezbollah. Failure to designate The Base as an FTO has the potential to undermine national security on multiple fronts, including by stifling law enforcement’s ability to investigate its members and recruiting practices, restricting intelligence-sharing with allies, and signaling to extremists that the U.S. government is unwilling to take meaningful action against transnational white supremacist terrorism.
More importantly, in an era when domestic and international violent extremism increasingly overlap, and the Department of Justice’s interest in curbing far-right extremism continues to wane, a failure to address the threats posed by The Base could prove fatal.
American Roots
The Base was founded by a U.S.-born former Pentagon intelligence contractor and now Russian citizen, Rinaldo Nazzaro, who claimed to have served alongside special operations forces (SOF) in overseas combat zones. Drawing on his experience in private security and the intelligence gold rush of the post-9/11 years, Nazzaro sought to build a network of like-minded militants that could outlast law enforcement crackdowns by embracing a decentralized structure.
Nazzaro cultivated a significant online following of fellow white supremacists under the aliases “Roman Wolf” and “Norman Spear.” In June 2018, he officially launched The Base on the podcast of a decades-long white supremacist, Billy Roper – an intentional move to appeal to hardcore white supremacists already steeped in accelerationist thinking. At the time, though, Nazzaro’s true identity remained unknown.
From its inception, The Base positioned itself as more than just an online movement confined to encrypted chat rooms. It promoted the strategy of leaderless resistance, an organizational model pioneered by far-right extremist Louis Beam, who encouraged autonomous cells and lone actors to wage violence without direct orders from central leadership. This structure makes attribution difficult and allows the organization to persist even if key figures are arrested.
Importantly, though, The Base was never purely domestic. From the outset, it sought global reach, recruiting in North America, Europe, and Australia. Nazzaro’s relocation to Russia in 2018 further underscores the group’s foreign nexus and potential facilitation by hostile state actors. Today, its transnational orientation is undeniable, manifested in operations that extend beyond digital spaces into kinetic action abroad.
A Pattern of Escalation
Before its most recent attack in Kyiv, The Base was already on a troubling trajectory. In 2018, Nazzaro bought several acres of land in rural Washington State to secure “off-grid” training sites for his followers to prepare for an impending race war. After local antifascists exposed Nazzaro’s plans, other members organized paramilitary camps across the country in Georgia and Michigan, training with firearms and explosives. A slew of arrests followed, the first of which came in November 2019, when then-18-year-old Richard Tobin was charged with federal hate crimes for vandalizing multiple synagogues.
In August 2019, Ryan Thorpe, a junior reporter from The Winnipeg Free Press, made headlines when he successfully infiltrated The Base on one of his first assignments, eventually exposing Canadian Armed Forces reservist Jordan Patrik Mathews as a member. Less than six months later, in January 2020, retired FBI agent Scott Payne’s seven-month undercover stint in The Base led to the arrest of three of its members for plotting to murder an antifascist couple in Georgia. Simultaneously, the crackdown in Georgia helped authorities disrupt a plot by several members of a Maryland-based cell just before they could carry out a mass shooting at a Virginia gun rights rally in hopes of sparking an armed civil conflict – a plot that included Mathews, who fled Canada just days after his exposure. Barely a week later, Nazzaro’s true identity was revealed by Jason Wilson in an article for The Guardian. Notably, rumors of Nazzaro’s alleged relationship with the Kremlin began to swirl among members of The Base around this time, citing his fluent Russian language skills and frequent travel between the United States, Russia, and other nations.
Despite the turmoil inflicted by the arrests and investigative journalism, The Base deepened its ties with the global white supremacist ecosystem, forging relationships with other violent accelerationist groups like the Atomwaffen Division (AWD) and the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM). Members also sought combat experience abroad, with some even venturing to Ukraine to gain training from the Azov Battalion – a pattern all too reminiscent of jihadists flocking to war zones across the Middle East.
Despite Nazzaro’s public denial of any involvement, the Kyiv incident is just the latest development in The Base’s arc. By assassinating a foreign intelligence officer in wartime, The Base has adopted the tactics of other internationally recognized terrorist organizations – namely, carrying out targeted killings to influence geopolitical outcomes. This escalatory act proves intent and capability on a scale that reaches far beyond the borders of the United States, significantly weakening any argument against an FTO designation.
The Base Meets the FTO Criteria
Under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the U.S. Secretary of State may designate an entity as an FTO if it meets three conditions:
- “It must be a foreign organization”;
- The organization “must engage in terrorist activity,” or “retain the capability and intent to engage in terrorist activity or terrorism”; and
- The “organization’s terrorist activity or terrorism must threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security (national defense, foreign relations, or the economic interests) of the United States.”
The Base meets all three of these criteria.
First, although The Base emerged in the United States, its de facto leader, Rinaldo Nazzaro, lives in Russia and is a Russian citizen. Moreover, Nazzaro operates the organization from there, directing key propaganda and recruitment activities using Russian digital platforms such as VK and a Mail.ru email address to recruit and distribute propaganda. Precedent also exists for this standard, as the U.S. government previously designated the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM) and its leadership – who have trained foreign militants – as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) in 2020.
Second, the assassination in Kyiv qualifies as terrorist activity – premeditated violence intended to influence political events. Even if one were to argue that Voronych was not a civilian, and therefore his assassination was not strictly an act of terrorism, The Base has already conspired to attack critical civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and carry out mass shootings inside the United States. Therefore, The Base has clearly demonstrated both the willingness and capacity to carry out acts of terror.
Finally, The Base is a serious threat to U.S. nationals and security, recently attempting to resurrect its previous activities within the United States. Its ideology explicitly advocates for the destruction of the U.S. government. Furthermore, it operates in foreign conflict zones in which U.S. personnel are also involved, creating a risk that it will strengthen hostile actors, although the scope of that assistance is not yet clear.
By these metrics, The Base meets the threshold for designation. Failure to apply the same standards to white supremacist groups as are regularly applied to jihadist organizations or other ideologically motivated threat actors creates a dangerous double standard that extremists will continue to exploit.
Designating The Base is not just a symbolic matter, but rather a force multiplier that could enhance the range of other punitive measures available to the U.S. government. With an FTO designation, the U.S. Treasury Department has the power to freeze and seize financial assets belonging to the group, as well as enforce existing legal statutes against any individuals providing it with material support, such as fundraising and logistical assistance. Lastly, a designation would help foster greater intelligence cooperation and sharing among allies – an invaluable tool for disrupting the group’s operations at a time when militant far-right networks are increasingly transnational in nature.
White Supremacist Terrorism is Global and Evolving
The assassination in Kyiv is more than a shocking headline or an outlier – it is a harbinger of attacks to come. Global white supremacist terrorism is evolving, and U.S. policy must adapt with it. Designating The Base would signal to the rest of the world that the U.S. government is prepared to treat racially and ethnically motivated violent extremist (REMVE) groups with the same urgency as jihadist threats. A designation would affirm that white supremacist terrorism receives the same legal treatment as ISIS or al-Qaeda. That consistency is vital at a time when REMVE is a quickly growing category of terrorism worldwide.
Moreover, a designation could undermine adversary narratives. Russia has repeatedly leveraged extremist movements as instruments of destabilization. Allowing a U.S.-founded group with Russian ties to operate unchecked erodes American credibility and emboldens future proxy activity.
The statutory criteria are clear and the precedent is established. What remains to be seen is if there is the political will necessary to acknowledge that white supremacist terrorism is not just an American problem – it is a growing transnational threat. If Washington cannot muster the resolve to designate The Base after an overseas assassination, then when? The choice is stark: lead the fight against this threat now, or watch it metastasize beyond our ability to contain in the future.
