A designated neo-Nazi terrorist organisation known as The Base is actively expanding its operations within the United States, according to a detailed analysis of its online activity. This resurgence comes as the FBI has reportedly scaled back its focus on far-right extremist threats.
From Pentagon to Pariah: The Leader's Ambitions
Founded by American-born Rinaldo Nazzaro, a former Pentagon contractor now alleged to be a Russian intelligence asset, The Base has ambitions that extend far beyond US borders. The group has established a significant presence in Ukraine, where its members have been linked to multiple terrorist acts, including the July assassination of an intelligence officer in Kyiv.
In a brazen audio recording released in early December via a Russian-controlled app, Nazzaro outlined the group's long-term goal. "Our long-term strategic goal is to accomplish something similar to what al-Qaida and IS accomplished in Syria," he stated. "Form an organized, armed insurgency to take and hold territory. And establish a white homeland which we control and govern."
Training in the Shadows: Evidence of US Activity
Despite a high-profile crackdown by the FBI in 2020 and recent arrests of its European cells, The Base maintains an active, if more cautious, network in America. Online propaganda materials show members conducting paramilitary training.
Videos from November depict masked men firing military-style rifles and pistols in what is claimed to be an Appalachian forest. Another photo from June shows five armed men in skull masks brandishing the group's black flag in the same region. Additional footage from mid-Atlantic and midwestern cells shows members performing Nazi salutes and weapons training.
Nazzaro has identified both Ukraine and the United States as the two nations possessing the "necessary prerequisites" for his group's objectives, citing access to firearms and rugged terrain in the US.
A Shifting Landscape: Law Enforcement and the 'Acceleration' Strategy
Analysts believe the group is exploiting a changed political and law enforcement environment. Under the second Trump administration, the FBI has openly rerouted resources away from investigating far-right extremists, a move that multiple sources say has allowed groups like The Base to organise more freely.
Steven Rai, an analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), monitors the group closely. "Nazzaro's recent statements mark a troubling escalation," Rai warned. He noted that while Nazzaro initially sanctioned attacks only in Ukraine over the summer, he has now explicitly endorsed violence in the US.
The group's strategy, as outlined in posts on the Russian social network VKontakte, involves creating "acceleration teams" to carry out "targeted attacks on essential infrastructure and resources" to destabilise society and weaken government authority.
Rai suggested that Nazzaro's explicit calls for violence might, however, give US authorities renewed legal grounds to intervene. "By providing Base operatives in the United States with explicit strategic guidance centered around violence, Nazzaro may have inadvertently increased the group's exposure to intervention by law enforcement," he said.
The Base is no longer viewed as solely an American problem. The European Union has designated it a terrorist organisation, placing it in the same category as IS and al-Qaida. Recent arrests of its members have occurred in Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. Europol's involvement highlights growing international concern, particularly regarding the group's suspected links to Russian sabotage operations.
Nazzaro's recent communications also mentioned seeing instability in Canada and the European Union as promising for recruitment, marking his first explicit mention of Canadian activities in years. The group's former Canadian cell leader, Patrik Matthews, is currently in a US prison for plotting a terrorist attack on a Virginia gun rights rally in 2020.
