A "threat" against which "the United States is not immune". US diplomacy on Monday listed a foreign white supremacist group on its blacklist for terrorism for the first time to show its determination.
The US State Department has added the Russian Imperial Movement and three of its leaders - Stanislav Vorobiev, Denis Gariev and Nikolai Trushchalov - to its list of "international terrorists," said counterterrorism coordinator Nathan Sales.
Washington accuses this group of "providing paramilitary training to neo-Nazis and white supremacists" in two centers, in Saint Petersburg, and of having thus trained Swedes who then carried out attacks in their country in late 2016-early 2017 .
Rally the supremacists on both sides of the Atlantic
The US government also believes that this Russian group "plays an important role in trying to rally Europeans and Americans in a common front against those they perceive as their enemies," said the American diplomat.
"Since 2015, the world has seen an increase in terrorism linked to white supremacism," said Nathan Sales. "The United States is not immune to this threat," he added, referring to recent attacks "targeting people for their race or religion in places like Pittsburgh, Poway or El Paso".
Donald Trump's administration wants to show that it takes seriously the danger represented by neo-Nazi or white nationalist groups, including on American soil, while the President of the United States himself is often accused of ambiguity towards them.