A dangerous Neo-Nazi cult that began in Eastern Europe has been pushing its tentacles further into the West, with the aim of spreading the 'flames of Lucifer'.
The Maniacs Murder Cult, or MMC, has been growing in size and boldness since its birth in 2018 at the hands of a former Ukrainian ultra, and culminated in a plot to dress a follower up as Santa Claus and feed poisoned sweets to children from ethnic minority backgrounds and Jewish communities in Brooklyn, New York.
Cult members, who stick to a hateful ideology that promotes the killing of ethnic minorities, Jewish people and anyone they consider 'undesirable', are required to prove their allegiance by committing sickening acts of terrorism and killing people on camera.
'Members share a common goal of challenging social order and governments via terrorism and violent acts that promote fear and chaos', the US Department of Justice said of the group in a recent criminal complaint against Michail Chkhikvishvili, a senior cult member who went by Commander Butcher and is accused of orchestrating the Santa plot.
In its Telegram channels, the group consistently proclaims the burning desire for RaHoWa, short for Racial Holy War. The averted attack in the US is understood to be the first known example of the group's activities outside of Russia and eastern Europe.
The group was linked to dozens of violent attacks in the region from 2018 onwards, according to researchers.
At least 38 incidents of vicious street fights and attacks, some of which reportedly resulted in the deaths of the victims.
Two videos posted to Telegram, and sent to the SOVA Centre, nationalism and racism research institute based in Moscow, stood out to researchers.
One showed a bloodied knife and the face of a man lying on the ground, while the other shows a lying man whose throat is presumably cut, they said.
The FSB, Russia's main security agency, said in 2021 that these videos were often created by new recruits to the death cult, with leaders of cells forcing them to 'assault civilians and law enforcement officers with bladed weapons and attack government buildings, setting them on fire and carrying out explosions.'
At the top of the chain of command is Yegor Krasnov, a Ukrainian man who founded the cult in 2018.
Krasnov, once an ultra for his city's football team, grew up as a hateful misanthrope with little love for the world around him, those around him previously said.
One security guard at the Dnipropetrovsk remand prison he was held for over a year told Russian-language outlet Current Time that Krasnov told him he had problems with 'everyone', Russian or not.
Police had a file on him from the age of 11, the outlet reported, after he 'tortured' a classmate in the school's toilet and extorted him for money.
Football hooliganism appeared to be something of a outlet for the rageful Krasnov. His former classmate Vladimir Safronov said: 'We were kids and loved to fight - crowd against crowd, district against district. Perhaps the numerous blows to the head set him on this path.'
As a teenager, the Neo-Nazi was forced to spend time locked up in a psychiatric ward 'either because of drugs, or because he could not control his aggression.'
Another of Krasnov's friends, Mikhail, said: 'He has an innate trait - cruelty. And [the drugs he was on] elevated all obsessive ideas to the absolute.'
His cruelty led him to found MCC in 2018, and quickly either commits several acts of terrorism and vandalism, or forces others to carry them out, over the next two years.
Krasnov was arrested in January 2020, after Russian police were called to a shopping centre cafe where he was sat twirling a revolver around in his hands.
Following his arrest, police searched his Dnipro flat and found a knife that was connected to the stabbing a computer programmer just two weeks prior.
He was sent to Dnipropetrovsk remand prison, accused of three armed robberies and an attempted murder that he claimed he had nothing to do with.
That being said, he openly admitted to being involved in the deaths of 15 people, though did not elaborate when asked by a Current Time reporter.
But while in prison, thanks to a bought-off prison guard, he was able to coordinate MCC cells across the world
Under his leadership, the cult grew and grew across the world, particularly in Russia.
The growth culminated in Russia's FSB arresting 106 cult members across 37 regions.
Two cells, in the Penza Region and the Komi Republic, were planning on attacking educational institutions.
Members were found with smoothbore and rifled civilian hunting guns and ammunition, pneumatic pistols, inert handguns and assault rifles, as well as several knives and tear gas canisters.
MCC claims that it has cells in four countries, but does not specify which ones outside Ukraine and Russia they are.
The averted attack in Brooklyn was that first time that the terror group was confirmed to have acted outside Ukraine or Russia.
Michail Chkhikvishvili, a 21 year old from the Republic of Georgia, was arrested pursuant to an Interpol Wanted Person Diffusion in Moldova on July 6.
Chkhikvishvili was arrested after he unwittingly tied to recruit an undercover FBI agent.
He drafted step-by-step instructions on how to carry out the Santa Claus poisoning scheme, writing in a November 2 missive that the undercover agent should use delivery services or pay with cash to buy the poisons and the chocolate candies.
'After giving around poisoned candies to many racial minorities and traitors, just go to [a] taxi, pay to go somewhere where you will have alternative clothes... and burn Santa clothes and equipment,' Chkhikvishvili allegedly wrote in the message.
Along with the message, prosecutors say the neo-Nazi provided the undercover cop with manuals on creating and mixing poisons and gases.
He also allegedly told the undercover agent to specifically target the Jewish community, noting, 'Jews are literally everywhere' in Brooklyn.
It seems Chkhikvishvili had high hopes for the plan, intending for it to be a 'bigger action than Breivik,' referring to Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian neo-Nazi who killed 77 people in a bombing and mass shooting in 2011.
'Once you do poison attack, I'll do message against US government,' he allegedly wrote to the undercover agent in November as he repeatedly asked for status updates.
'MMC will become bigger than al Qaeda once it drops.'
When New Year's Eve passed without any hate attack, prosecutors said he switched the plan to focus on poisoning children on 'some Jewish holiday.'
