A neo-Nazi group in Sweden has become the second-ever white supremacist organisation to be designated in the US.
The US State Department announced on June 14 its decision to designate as Specially Designated Global Terrorists the Nordic Resistance Movement (NRM) and three of its top officials – Tor Fredrik Vejdeland, Pär Öberg, and Leif Robert Eklund.
This is the first time the Biden administration has made a similar move against a white supremacist group, and it comes four years after the Trump administration designated the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM) and its leaders.
The State Department said the NRM designation as a terror group was the result of “having committed or attempted to commit, posing a significant risk of committing, or having participated in training to commit acts of terrorism that threaten the security of United States nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States”.
The violent group is based on an “openly racist, anti-immigrant, antisemitic, and anti-LGBTQI+ platform”, the department’s statement read.
It added: “The group’s members and leaders have carried out violent attacks against political opponents, protestors, journalists, and other perceived adversaries.
“NRM members have also taken steps to collect and prepare weapons and explosive materials, including on behalf of the group and in furtherance of its goals. In addition, NRM has organized training in violent tactics, including hand-to-hand combat and knife fighting.”
The department explained this decision is part of the Biden administration’s efforts to deal with the threat posed by transnational racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists. The designation will prevent NRM members from accessing the US financial system, which would make it more difficult to fund their efforts in the States.
The NRM, founded in Sweden in 1997 at first under the name Swedish Resistance Movement, has branches across the Nordic states, in Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Finland. The latter banned the group in 2020.
This comes as Sweden is battling gang wars, with one expert suggesting the country is bordering on civil war.
Göran Adamson, a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Uppsala University, previously told Express.co.uk that his country was becoming a “capital of violence” – partly due to a wave of suspected criminals moving there.