June 14 (UPI) — The U.S. State Department Friday designated the Nordic Resistance Movement and three of its leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
Three of the alleged leaders of the group also were designated,
The State Department said Fredrik Vejdeland has been in the group’s national leadership for 20 years and is the head of the group’s national council.
Par Oberg is an NRM national council member and heads the group’s parliamentary branch.
Leif Robert Eklund is on the NRM’s national council and coordinates various Swedish NRM divisions, according to the State Department.
“NRM is the largest neo-Nazi group in Sweden, with branches in Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland, where it has been banned since 2020,” the State Department said in a statement. ” NRM’s violent activity is based on its openly racist, anti-immigrant, antisemitic, and anti-LGBTQI+ platform. The group’s members and leaders have carried out violent attacks against political opponents, protestors, journalists, and other perceived adversaries.”
According to the State Department the group was formed in 1997 and at first was called the Swedish Resistance movement, but later adopted the NRM name.
The State Department said, “The United States remains deeply concerned about the racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist threat worldwide and is committed to countering the transnational components of violent white supremacy. ”
NRM members have collected and prepared weapons and explosives in furtherance of its goals, the State Department said.
The organization’s members have organized training in hand-to-hand combat and knife fighting, according to the State Department.
The State Department said the group is being designated as terrorist “for having committed or attempted to commit, posing a significant risk of committing, or having participated in training to commit acts of terrorism that threaten the security of United States nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.”