The head of a leading British far-right group spoke at a summit of European extreme nationalist groups convened in Russia by an influential oligarch linked to Vladimir Putin, it can be revealed.<\/p>\n
The revelation has led to renewed concern among MPs over the Kremlin\u2019s links to extremist groups and its attempts to disrupt democracy and sow societal divisions in the UK.<\/p>\n
The event in St Petersburg was addressed by Mark Collett, a longstanding far-right activist and founder of Patriotic Alternative, which attempted to exploit the summer of unrest outside asylum hotels in Britain.<\/p>\n
A range of groups from across Europe, including some far-right ideologues from France and other countries, also attended the inaugural gathering of the Forum of the International Anti-Globalist League.<\/p>\n
Pride of place was given to Alexander Dugin, an ultranationalist Russian<\/a> who has been described as \u201cPutin\u2019s brain\u201d and whose views helped shaped ideas behind the invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n Calvin Bailey, a Labour MP and member of the Commons defence committee who has been vocal about Russia\u2019s hybrid war in western Europe, said the links between Patriotic Alternative and Russia<\/a> were the latest example of the Kremlin\u2019s attempts to use political subversion against Britain and other countries.<\/p>\n \u201cRussia considers itself at war with us. It absolutely wants to see systematic paralysis here and is eager to find ways of undermining the fabric of our nation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat dovetails with what the far right wants and what it believes. It\u2019s even more than just groups and individuals on the far right being used as proxies. They are literally a vehicle for attacking the ideas that underpin our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n Russian \u201cinfluence operations\u201d in Britain have been ratcheted up in recent years, in addition to espionage operations ranging from arson<\/a> to spy rings<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, there have also been worries about more subtle attempts to sow societal divisions. The Guardian revealed earlier this year<\/a> how a network of Telegram channels with Russian links was encouraging UK residents to commit violent attacks on mosques and Muslims<\/a> and offering cryptocurrency in return.<\/p>\n There have been calls for a ban on Patriotic Alternative, regarded as the UK\u2019s largest far-right group, albeit one that has faced challenges from newer rivals.<\/p>\n Collett, once a young acolyte of the then BNP leader Nick Griffin and now a veteran far-right figure, founded the group after splits in the BNP<\/a>. It quickly became a home for a digital-savvy younger generation of activists.<\/p>\n He confirmed to the Guardian that he had attended the Russian event, as an online participant. Collett said that he gave a three-minute speech discussing birthrates and immigration in Britain, how white Britons would be reduced to a minority in future \u201cand that eastern European countries must not allow the same thing on their soil\u201d.<\/p>\n Collett said he had been invited by the Brotherhood of Academists, a nationalist student movement operating in universities across Russia and in occupied parts of Ukraine.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not believe that Russia desires war with the west, or with Britain. What\u2019s more, I have never received any contact or payment from anyone within the Russian establishment, so the idea that myself or Patriotic Alternative is being \u2018used\u2019 by the Russian state is absurd, and a groundless suggestion,\u201d he told the Guardian. He believed the conflict in Ukraine was \u201cstoked\u201d by the previous US government because it desired a proxy war with Russia.<\/p>\n The key figure behind the event, which took place at St Petersburg\u2019s Legislative Assembly building on 12 September, was Konstantin Malofeyev, a banker whose business interests include the Kremlin-supporting Tsargrad media group and who founded the Brotherhood of Academists.<\/p>\n Malofeyev, who has been described by the US authorities as \u201cone of the main sources of financing\u201d<\/a> for the promotion of Russian interests in eastern Ukraine and Crimea, hailed the conference in a post on Telegram<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cMore than 50 delegates from 15 rightwing patriotic organisations across three continents came to St Petersburg. Diverse, but united on key issues: a desire to defend Christian values, a fight for national identity and sovereignty, and resistance to our common enemy \u2013 globalism,\u201d said Malofeyev, who is known as the \u201cOrthodox oligarch\u201d because of his support for the Russian church.<\/p>\n He said that the event opened with a \u201cChristian memorial\u201d and a moment of silence for the rightwing US activist Charlie Kirk, who was killed two days before the forum<\/a>.<\/p>\n