Russia’s biggest nationalist group is funded by a pro-Kremlin analyst and a billionaire linked to the son of a former FSB chief, BBC investigation finds

Russia’s largest nationalist organization, Russkaya Obshchina — whose members target migrants and LGBTQ+ people — is funded by foundations linked to pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Mikheyev and billionaire Igor Khudokormov. BBC Eye journalists reached that conclusion after reviewing the organization’s financial documents. Russkaya Obshchina’s representatives have repeatedly said it operates exclusively on donations from its members.

Khudokormov owns the Prodimeks agricultural holding. Forbes Russia estimates his net worth at $1.7 billion, placing him 90th on its list of Russian billionaires.

Known as the “sugar king,” Khudokormov is considered one of Russia’s largest landowners and rarely appears in public. “He is widely believed to be within the sphere of influence of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev, the son of former Federal Security Service director Nikolai Patrushev,” journalist Amalia Zatari says in the BBC documentary.

Sergei Mikheyev, whose foundation also finances Russkaya Obshchina, is a political analyst and propagandist who appears regularly on national television channels. “He has reportedly been closely linked to the Kremlin and carried out assignments for Russian intelligence services abroad,” the documentary states.

The BBC investigation also documents the experiences of people targeted by Russkaya Obshchina:

• Members of Russkaya Obshchina, together with police, raided a club during the birthday party of a St. Petersburg resident named Katya, suspecting the guests at the private event of promoting LGBTQ+ content. The guests were insulted and beaten, and their passports were photographed. Katya herself was sentenced to 200 hours of community service on charges of offending religious sensibilities, based on a cross-shaped lamp hanging in the club.
• Russkaya Obshchina intervened in a domestic dispute in the settlement of Svetly in the Novosibirsk Region. The conflict began after local teenagers beat a boy from a migrant family from Kyrgyzstan. After the beaten boy’s parents spoke with one of the teenagers, that teenager’s mother contacted police and Russkaya Obshchina members, claiming the migrants had kidnapped her child and threatened to kill him. The family faced criminal prosecution but was protected by other residents of the settlement. After the incident, the family returned to Bishkek.

Russkaya Obshchina was founded in 2020 and describes itself as an environment “for uniting Russian people on the principle of mutual aid.” It now has more than a hundred regional and city chapters across Russia.

Unlike other nationalist organizations, Russkaya Obshchina fully supports the Russian government. It backs the war in Ukraine, cooperates with law enforcement and the Russian Orthodox Church, and its members file “denunciations” en masse. Between 2023 and 2025, BBC journalists found, Russkaya Obshchina took part in more than 900 raids against migrants and people it deemed to have “untraditional values” — 300 of them conducted jointly with law enforcement officers.

Independent journalists have identified the founders of Russkaya Obshchina as former Omsk City Council deputy speaker Andrei Tkachuk, former coordinator of the anti-abortion movement Za Zhizn! (“For Life!”) Yevgeny Chesnokov, and Spas television channel host Andrei Afanasyev.

Meduza has reported that Russkaya Obshchina does not merely coordinate attacks on migrants with law enforcement — it also carries out their assignments. The organization was likely created under the supervision of the Federal Security Service (FSB).