APPREHENDED
- Full name: Arseniy Lesnoy
- Pseudonym: N/a
- Alternatives: N/a
- Location: Russia
- Affiliation: Sakhalin Tactical Club of Nationalists [STKN]
Arseniy Lesnoy (°ca 1991) is an ultranationalist from the Russian far east region of Sakhalin. He once tried to join the army, was rejected because of his slender built and went on to work for a local advertising firm.1 Lesnoy was allegedly involved with the Russians’ Ethnopolitical Association [EOR; Etnopoliticheskoye Obyedineniye Russkiye] in the early-to-mid 2010s.2 He was put on the Russian authorities’ list of extremists in 2015.3 Lesnoy was also affiliated with a Russian-Orthodox youth organization.4
In the late 2010s, Lesnoy joined the Sakhalin Tactical Club of Nationalists [STKN; Sakhalinskiy Takticheskiy Klub Natsionalistov] set up and headed by Aleksandr Kozin. The group of up to twenty right-wing extremists practiced survival skills and organized combat tactics in airsoft sessions.5 Lesnoy was a key member of the SKTN and might have acted as Kozin’s deputy. Russian security services later found that outfit was planning to launch attacks against local authorities and immigrants in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.6
On Apr. 04, 2020, security forces arrested Lesnoy, searched his home and allegedly discovered bomb components during an operation against the SKTN.7 A military court sentenced him to eighteen years in prison on Jun. 14, 2022.8
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