U.S. designates Russian nationalist group as terrorist organization

The United States is designating a Russia-based ultranationalist group called the Russian Imperial Movement as a terrorist organization, a senior State Department official told Reuters on Monday.

The group's members cast themselves Russian Orthodox nationalists who favor restoring the monarchy and privileging the interests of ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarussians. The U.S. State Department in its latest annual terrorism report published last November said ethnically and racially driven terrorism had risen alarmingly in 2018 both worldwide and in the United States.