Russian who infiltrated NRA linked to Putin’s sanctioned biker gang leader caught invading Ukraine
This series is entitled The Torshin Files.
Alexander Torshin is apparent friends with two of the top current and former leaders of Russia’s two of the three other highest-profile Spetznaz forces; the Night Wolves motorcycle gang and the FSB’s group “A” or Alpha.
The Night Wolves biker gang is one of Putin’s shadow government organizations.
Today they are posing security problems throughout the Balkans and southeastern Europe by acting as a modern cavalry unit.
Torshin’s relationship with the Night Wolves leader Alexander Zaldostanov coincides with the three fateful years where the Russian plan to invade Ukraine came together, was executed and led to repercussions against the biker gang leader.
He is best known as “The Surgeon.”
Both the Surgeon and the Night Wolves were sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in December 2014, and by Canada the following year.
The Night Wolves are reputed to have 5,000 men, and Zaldostanov led them into Eastern Ukraine and Crimea to support operations by the Russian Federation, backing Putin’s invasion and annexation of the peninsula, plus the ensuing war of insurgency in Eastern Ukraine.
The country of Slovakia — a NATO and EU member — is currently wrestling with how to handle a “history museum” set up in their country by the Night Wolves.
The Russian government calls the biker group’s museum its “European Headquarters.”
Two years before the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Crimea in June 2012, the Night Wolves leader gave an award to the Russian Federation Council’s then-number two man, Torshin
He tweeted a photo of the occasion with a comment:
“Handed mantel clock from St.Petersburg. Georgi Victorious. Said: ‘Where [there are] Night Wolves — There is success! Where [there‘s the] Surgeon is victory!’”
It appears that Torshin accepted the award at Club Sexton, a massive nightclub owned by the Night Wolves in the middle of Moscow.
The nightclub was itself added to the US Treasury department’s sanctions list last summer under the name “Bike Center” which its website uses.
A source in Moscow who has visited Club Sexton says that it is open to the public and entertains people from all walks of life.
Four months after recieving the Surgeon’s award, Alexander Torshin posted a pair of photos on to Twitter with himself and Zaldostanov in Moscow on the same day in mid-2013 in a formal office meeting
Later that day, the two men posed for a street photo.
The following year, Russia invaded Ukraine, and Zaldostanov led the charge from his motorcycle.
Just a month before the invasion, Torshin posted a photo posting with Zaldostanov posed for a photo together captioned “Today” which the Russian Central banker probably used to note that it was a live photo, as his Twitter timeline is littered with photo posts that are from months or even years later.
Putin personally awarded Alexander Zaldostanov the Russian Medal of Honour on March 12th, 2014 in the Kremlin.
Russia handed out medals for the ‘For the Return of Crimea’ that were infamously struck before the invasion began, and it’s believed that the Surgeon carries that award too.
Just a week after the US Treasury sanctioned Zaldostanov for participating in the invasion on December 26th, 2014, Alexander Torshin published a photo of himself with the ‘legendary’ Surgeon that he noted is from inside the Kremlin.
The last photo that Torshin posted of himself with Zaldostanov on Twitter is dated April 23rd, 2015 and calls their meeting a pleasant surprise.
The Night Wolves were active in the United States during the time of the 2016 elections according to the Miami Herald’s Pulitzer-winning reporter Nick Nehamas, when a security company front man purchased condominiums in Miami with what was likely dirty cash, and his partner opened a biker gang called M.C. Spetznaz, which sought official recognition from the Night Wolves.
When Nehamas asked the biker group for comment on the story, they filed dissolution paperwork with Florida’s Secretary of State.
However, the Night Wolves foray into Florida, and their incorporation filings left a paper-trail definitely linking them to Alfa-Anticriminal, a private security company which shares the name of one of the FSB’s most well known special forces outfits and numerous former government agents in its ranks.
This deep dive story explores the Night Wolves recent expansion to Florida:
Alexander Torshin even introduced Col. Sergey Lysyuk of the Vityaz private military company, whom he calls “his people.”
It is not possible to know precisely what Alexander Torshin was doing with the Night Wolves during the run up to and aftermath of their military activities in Ukraine.
However, it is well established that Alexander Torshin is a close associate of the Surgeon and that their relationship was in its fullest bloom around the time Russia began their hybrid-war against Ukraine.
Furthermore, it demonstrates that the NRA performed little to no due diligence on Alexander Torshin — who posted plenty of photos with the sanctioned leader of the Night Wolves — before accepting his invitation to visit Moscow in December 2015 and meet with he and Dmitry Rogozin, another sanctioned official, because a cursory look at his Twitter feed would reveal his relationship with the infamous biker gang that helped Putin invade and capture Ukraine and the Crimea.
Part 3 of The Torshin Files series:
Part 1 of The Torshin Files series:
Scott Dworkin contributed research to this story.
