The U.S. Justice Department on July 12 said ethnically motivated attacks were becoming a serious global threat and suggested the global community take them more seriously, a day after announcing the arrest of an 18-year-old New Jersey man who is accused of plotting to attack a U.S. electrical substation to advance his white-supremacist views.
The new threats are emerging through technological changes and Russian-linked actors developing and spreading false narratives on racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism (REMVE) in Ukraine, the Justice Department said in a news release.
The department said the international community had developed strong cooperation over the last 20 years to counter terrorist groups and networks, such as Al-Qaeda and Islamic State, but there is not yet the same type of routine information sharing for REMVE.
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To address the gap, the Justice Department said it co-hosted with the State Department the third annual meeting of the Counterterrorism Law Enforcement Forum in The Hague on July 10-11.
The forum's participants included law enforcement, prosecutors, and other criminal justice practitioners from around the world to discuss how to effectively address and counter REMVE threats.
The meeting built on the conversations that participants had in the first two forums, "reflecting the type of cooperation that will be needed in the coming years as REMVE threats continue to build their transnational ties," the Justice Department said.
The arrest of the 18-year-old was announced on July 11 after he made his initial appearance in court for allegedly soliciting another individual to destroy an electrical substation in the United States.
The defendant, Andrew Takhistov of Brunswick, New Jersey, was arrested on July 10 at the international airport in Newark, New Jersey, where he was about to board a transatlantic flight.
Authorities said they believe Takhistov was on his way to Ukraine to join the Russian Volunteer Corps.
Takhistov two months ago informed an undercover employee that he was planning to travel to Ukraine in July to join the Russian Volunteer Corps, explaining that he chose the organization because it was openly national-socialist and specialized in assassinations, attacks on power grids, and other infrastructure sabotage.
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A criminal complaint against Takhistov alleges that he encouraged violence against black and Jewish communities, discussed causing death and destruction on a large scale, praised mass shooters, and shared online a quote attributed to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler about terrorism as "the best political weapon."
According to the complaint, Takhistov repeatedly referred to his REMVE ideology and his desire to advance that ideology through violent means. He also formed his own REMVE group called White Legion in North Carolina.
Takhistov claimed that he trained with two individuals he recruited from militant neo-Nazi chatrooms, obtained neo-Nazi literature from the overtly neo-Nazi discussion group European American Unity, and in March took part in a white-nationalist protest at a park in New Brunswick.
According to Sellinger, Takhistov discussed a "three-step plan for white domination" ending the war in Ukraine, invading Russia and then starting political activism in Europe and the United States in support of national-socialist political parties.
Takhistov is charged with one count of soliciting another individual to engage in criminal conduct that involved destroying an electrical facility in the United States. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $125,000 fine.