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Russian extremist groups are actively training foreign white nationalists, the report states. One Russian neofascist group, the Russian Imperial Movement, has overseen paramilitary instruction for European extremists at its Russia-based camps, and has tried to recruit Americans to train there, according to the report.

The State Department designated the Russian Imperial Movement as a terrorist group in April 2020. The organization "actively supplies paramilitary training to foreign nationals for possible future attacks in their respective home countries or on the battlefields of Ukraine," according to a May 2021 Customs and Border Patrol bulletin obtained by Yahoo News.

Another Russian extremist group with foreign connections, the neo-Nazi Rusich Reconnaissance and Sabotage Group, sent members to fight in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2015, according to the intelligence community assessment.

Rusich recently hinted on social media about its plans to return to eastern Ukraine, according to the New America Foundation. Rusich is closely aligned with Russia's paramilitary Wagner Group, according to New America.

Members of the Russian extremist group Rusich Reconnaissance and Sabotage Group

An Instagram post showing members of the Russian extremist group Rusich Reconnaissance and Sabotage Group on a Russian tank, September 2021. (@rusichvpk/Instagram)

While the report describes the Russian government's support for these extremist groups as "indirect and passive," this is a "distinction without a difference," said a former senior CIA official.

"When you look at the number of Russian neo-Nazis that are actively infiltrating, or looking to digitally infiltrate U.S. groups," said the former official, "at some point, if it's so pervasive, and the Russians aren't doing anything to stop it, is that really materially different from the big stamp coming down from the sky and saying, 'We approve?'"

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