From St. Petersburg to Belgrade: The expansion of Russian-linked extremism propaganda on Telegram

Telegram as a gateway for Russian extremist propaganda in Serbia

“Mass deportations, the restoration of tradition and culture, and the overthrow of European Union globalism”, are just some of the slogans included in a new package of decisions for “every white nationalist.”

The material has been circulated on Telegram by a newly established international far-right organization.

It concerns the International Sovereigntist League “Paladins” (ISL Paladins), a transnational alliance of radical right-wing and neo-Nazi organizations, according to information from its Telegram accounts.

The League was founded in September 2025 in St. Petersburg, Russia. At its founding congress, it was stated that its purpose was cooperation and coordination of activities among far-right organizations.

The alliance includes several far-right extremist groups from Serbia, along with around ten other European organizations with the same ideological orientation, as well as several movements from Africa and Latin America, whose representatives were present at the meeting in Russia.

An analysis shows that since the establishment of ISL “Paladins”, members of the League have carried out synchronized actions and exchanged content in a coordinated manner on social media.

“The League is born. The resistance is united. The fight has begun!”, reads the first post published by this alliance.

The group’s Telegram channel was opened in September 2025 and has just over one thousand followers. However, according to data analysis available on the Telemetr platform, which collects analytical data on Telegram channels and groups, the ISL “Paladins” profile has an exceptionally high level of audience engagement. This means that, thanks to reposts, content from this channel reaches a much larger number of people.

The analysis also shows that messages from this profile are regularly shared by right-wing and pro-Russian informational channels on Telegram, such as “Fortress Europe”, “Right People Z”, and “Bellum Acta”, which together have more than 150,000 followers, as well as by channels of right-wing organizations that participated in the founding of ISL “Paladins”.

During December 2025, content from the ISL “Paladins” channel was republished on 30 other Telegram profiles. Among the ten accounts that most frequently shared ISL “Paladins” messages were three channels belonging to Serbian far-right organizations.

The Serbian organization “Narodne Patrole”, with around 10,900 followers, on average shared posts from the ISL “Paladins” channel every other day.

To a slightly lesser extent, the same was done by the organizations “Srpska Akcija” and its youth wing, “Zborashka Omladina”, whose accounts, according to Telegram data, are followed by around 6,700 people.

These organizations are known for ethno-nationalist ideology and anti-migrant and homophobic rhetoric.

“Narodne Patrole” drew public attention at the beginning of 2020, when activists from this informal group stopped migrants on the streets of Belgrade and distributed leaflets stating that migrants were “forbidden to move outside migrant centers from 22:00 to 06:00,” as well as to “move in groups larger than three people during the day.”

The organization “Srpska Akcija” declares that it advocates “militant Orthodoxy, the preservation of national being, and racial identity.” In 2022, activists from this group visited a military training ground of the Imperial Legion in St. Petersburg. This is the militant wing of the “Russian Imperial Movement” (RIM), an ultranationalist organization from Russia that was designated by the U.S. State Department in 2020 as a global terrorist threat.

Since its founding, ISL “Paladins” has focused its activities on the issue of migration. Immediately after the founding congress in Russia, coordinated activities began through a network of interconnected Telegram channels and organizations sharing the same narrative: migrants are portrayed as a security threat, a cultural enemy, and a source of violence.

An analysis of posts shows that information about incidents involving migrants is distributed in a synchronized manner across many linked channels. In addition to open calls for repressive measures, persecution, and mass deportations, migration management policies in Western countries are also criticized, often using inaccurate or incomplete data.

For example, the ISL “Paladins” Telegram channel published information claiming that a plane with 141 passengers of Afghan origin had landed in Germany, alleging that “Germans are forced to accept Muslims who practically rape their population.” In reality, the passengers were collaborators of German institutions, journalists, and activists from Afghanistan, whom Germany included in its humanitarian reception program after the Taliban took power.

In 2021, then German Chancellor Angela Merkel emphasized that she “considered it important to evacuate people from Afghanistan who had worked for Germany for 20 years.”

In July 2025, a court ordered that the reception program for these individuals continue even after the change of government in Germany and despite announcements of a tougher immigration policy.

While, according to ISL “Paladins”, all of Europe is “at risk” because of migrant arrivals, the only example of a “good” migration policy is found in Russia.

On its Telegram channel, the organization published information stating that 87 percent of migrant children who had submitted documentation were not enrolled in Russian schools because, according to the post, they lacked complete documentation or did not meet the required criteria.

“Migrant children are future criminals and a burden on our countries. They should not exploit our education system,” reads a post on the ISL “Paladins” account.

“Human Rights Watch” and other organizations have criticized the new Russian policy that restricts access to education for migrant children, as well as the law that, since April 2025, has required children of migrant families to pass a Russian-language test in order to enroll in public schools. This policy has been assessed as a discriminatory measure that violates the right to education and Russia’s international obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Immediately after returning from the founding congress in St. Petersburg, the organization “Narodne Patrole” called for a protest in Belgrade against what it described as “population replacement.” The protest was later canceled after the leader of this far-right extremist group, Damnjan Knežević, was arrested in Belgrade on suspicion of committing the criminal offense of racial discrimination.

Knežević was also arrested in 2023 after organizing a protest related to Serbia’s policy toward Kosova. At the time, he was accused of calling for the violent overthrow of the constitutional order but was released in November 2024 due to a lack of evidence.

Information about Knežević’s arrest in 2025 was shared by ISL “Paladins” on its Telegram channel with the message: “Our people are exposed to repression in their countries, where injustice is inflicted upon them.”

On December 1, 2025, ISL “Paladins” also held its first joint official rally against the European Union.

Members of far-right organizations that are part of this League simultaneously took to the streets in Greece, Hungary, Belgium, Russia, Spain, and Serbia.

Although formally without institutional support, ISL “Paladins” was founded at a meeting held on September 12, 2025, at the headquarters of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg. The meeting was organized by Konstantin Malofeev, a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church.

Malofeev has been under Western sanctions since 2014 for his role in inciting uprisings in southern and eastern Ukraine, assisting in Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and supporting pro-Russian separatists.

Aleksandr Dugin, one of the Kremlin’s main ideologues and a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was also present at the meeting.

Representatives of far-right organizations from three continents took part. /Radio Free Europe/