APPREHENDED
- Full name: Aleksandr Kozin
- Pseudonym: N/a
- Alternatives: N/a
- Location: Russia
- Affiliation: Sakhalin Tactical Club of Nationalists
Aleksandr Kozin (°ca 1979) is a Russian former kindergarten cook, karate practitioner and airsoft afficionado from the Sakhalin region. He was reportedly involved with the far-right Russians’ Ethnopolitical Association [EOR; Etnopoliticheskoye Obyedineniye Russkiye] in the early-to-mid 2010s.1 Kozin long maintained a nationalist news channel on Russian social media that had attracted more than 20,000 followers.2 In October 2017, he set up a search and rescue volunteer team.3
In the summer of 2018, Kozin and some his associates formed the Sakhalin Tactical Club of Nationalists [STKN; Sakhalinskiy Takticheskiy Klub Natsionalistov].4 Kozin went on to lead this group of up to twenty right-wing extremists and organized survival training and airsoft sessions aimed at practicing combat tactics.5 Russian security services grew wary of the STKN and started monitoring its activities. Agents found that Kozin and his companions were purportedly planning to attack local authorities and Central Asian immigrants in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.6 They furthermore believed that the men were trying to acquire firearms.7
Security forces arrested Kozin on Apr. 04, 2020.8 Officers reportedly found bomb components during the search of his home.9 A military court sentenced him to a nineteen-year prison term on Jun. 14, 2022.10
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