Sakhalin Tactical Club of Nationalists (Ultranationalist Entity, Russia)

• Local Name: Сахалинский Тактический Клуб Националистов​
• Transliteration: Sakhalinskiy Takticheskiy Klub Natsionalistov
• Alternatives: N/a
• Status: 2018 – 2020 (Defeated)
• Conflicts: Ultranationalist Militancy in Russia

The Sakhalin Tactical Club of Nationalists [STKN; Sakhalinskiy Takticheskiy Klub Natsionalistov] was an outfit of right-wing extremists based in the Russian far east. It was headed by Aleksandr Kozin and had up to twenty members.¹ The outfit was formed in the summer of 2018. Its elements regularly gathered for airsoft sessions.² STKN members were believed to have been recruited through Kozin’s social media channels and a search and rescue volunteer team set up by him. Members of the group were purported to have harassed foreigners and asocial elements in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.³

Russian security services grew wary of the STKN and its members who were practicing tactical combat and survival skills in the forests of Sakhalin. They began monitoring the outfit and became convinced that it was preparing to launch attacks against local authorities and Central Asian immigrants.⁴ Intelligence agents reportedly learned that the STKN was planning to attack the local police headquarters, seize weapons, storm the local parliament and take hostages.⁵ Group members were also alleged to have tried acquiring firearms.⁶

On Apr. 04, 2020, security forces raided the homes of Kozin and two of his close associates in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and purportedly discovered bomb components.⁷ Six acquaintances of the men later also got their houses searched by police.⁸ A military court sentenced Kozin and his supposed deputy to long prison sentences on Jun. 14, 2022.⁹