Balkans Should Beware of Putin’s Night-Time Bikers

The Night Wolves began as an anti-establishment biker club in the 1990s but has since evolved into a patriotic organization with strong Orthodox leanings and close ties to the Kremlin.

Over the past decade, it has grown into a complex network of private businesses and non-profit organizations whose activities range from youth clubs and patriotic activities to nightclubs, tattoo shops and sale of merchandise. They are affiliated with Wolf Holdings, which provides security and special training, and has 17 centers in Russia, Europe, and Asia. By 2016, the Night Wolves had established 51 chapters in multiple locations, from Chechnya to Serbia. In total, they have approximately 5,000 members.

Since 2008, the gang has become significantly closer to the Russian Orthodox Church, thanks to its leader, Alexander Zaldostanov, and prominent member, Alexie Weitz. Zaldostanov underwent a spiritual transformation after a motorcycle accident in 1999, and, with help from Weitz, then refocused the club towards the promotion of pan-Orthodox sentiment among the Slavic peoples. He meets regularly the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, (and former KGB agent) Patriarch Kirill, to discuss hosting patriotic events. The Night Wolves have also defended the Church against protests.

One way that the club promotes its agenda is by sponsoring motorcycle pilgrimages to holy sites, often during times of political tension. Not long after the nerve gas attack on former spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England, in 2018, which the UK blamed on Kremlin agents, the Night Wolves started a nine-day tour of the Balkans.

On the border of Serbia and Bosnia, member Yevgeny Strogov told The New York Times that the purpose of the pilgrimage was "to expand the spiritual bond...