Maniac Murder Cult

Maniac Murder Cult (also known as MKY, MKU, MMC, Maniacs Murder Cult, and Maniacs: Cult of Killing) is a neo-Nazi accelerationist organization founded in Dnipro, Ukraine, approximately 2017-2018 by Yegor Krasnov ("Maniac") when he was approximately 16 years old. It combines explicit national socialism, theistic Satanism, and extreme misanthropy into an ideology it calls RaHoWa (Racial Holy War), and it implements a tiered "Murder Points" reward system that incentivizes escalating real-world violence as a form of organizational advancement. The group's self-declared terrorist identity and its encouragement of livestreamed attacks distinguishes it analytically from purely nihilistic networks within The Com ecosystem. The UK proscribed MKY as a terrorist organization on July 2, 2025; Canada listed it alongside 764 and Terrorgram Collective on December 10, 2025.¹

Origins in Dnipro

Krasnov founded the group in Dnipro after an alleged expulsion from another far-right formation, taking approximately 15 members with him. The group's first branded content (short videos of street attacks) appeared on the Russian imageboard 2chan in 2018, then migrated to VK and Telegram in 2019. The name derives from Krasnov's alias and the group's ideological framing of murder as a spiritual and political act.

Ukrainian authorities arrested Krasnov in 2020, after which Michail Chkhikvishvili assumed operational leadership. Chkhikvishvili, a Georgian national who used the alias "Commander Butcher," expanded the network's international reach and shifted its recruitment toward Telegram and Wire/Matrix for encrypted internal communications distinct from its public-facing channels.²

Ideology and Murder Points System

MKY's ideological framework combines three elements: neo-Nazi accelerationism (the belief that mass violence against Jews, racial minorities, and LGBTQ+ individuals will precipitate societal collapse and enable a fascist reconstitution), theistic Satanism drawn from O9A-adjacent traditions, and a misanthropic exaltation of serial killers and mass murderers as exemplary figures. Venerated "saints" include the 2019 Christchurch attacker, Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber), and the Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs - three Ukrainian teenagers who filmed and distributed murders in 2007.

The "Murder Points" system operationalizes this ideology through a formal rank structure: crimes earn different point values (higher for more severe acts), with accumulated points translating to elevated rank within the network. A documented tier hierarchy means members progress from vandalism through assault to arson to terrorism and murder, with the network's internal status architecture rewarding escalation. This distinguishes MKY from the largely status-driven nihilism of other Com subgroups: MKY's violence serves both internal rank and stated ideological goals.³

International Reach and Attributed Violence

Though Ukrainian in origin, MKY expanded internationally through Telegram recruitment, with documented members in at least a dozen countries by 2024. Real-world violence directly attributed to MKY or members acting on its direction includes:

Romania (2022): A 17-year-old member livestreamed the murder of an elderly woman as an MKY initiation ritual and separately injured an 82-year-old man. Romanian courts convicted the perpetrator in August 2023 to 14 years imprisonment.

Turkey (August 2024): An 18-year-old neo-Nazi livestreamed stabbing multiple people near a mosque in Eskisehir. The attack has been attributed to MKY by researchers; it is also cited in the Canadian sentencing proceedings of Terrorgram Collective co-founder Matthew Althorpe as a Terrorgram-inspired attack, reflecting the substantial ideological overlap between these networks.

Nashville, Tennessee (January 22, 2025): Solomon Henderson, 17, shot and killed student Josselin Corea Escalante at Antioch High School before dying by suicide. Henderson's manifesto cited MKY and named Chkhikvishvili specifically. Nashville Metropolitan Police Department's January 2026 investigative update concluded Henderson had no co-conspirators and that there was no evidence of direct operational direction from MKY.

Sweden (2024): A 14-year-old known online as "Slain764" stabbed two elderly individuals; at least six additional attacks were recorded and promoted on Telegram by this individual before their arrest in September 2024. The ISD and ADL attribute this activity to the intersection of 764 and MKY networks.⁴

Prosecutions and Designations

The primary prosecution of MKY leadership was brought by the U.S. Department of Justice against Michail Chkhikvishvili in the Eastern District of New York. Chkhikvishvili was indicted in July 2024 for soliciting hate crimes and planning a mass casualty attack in New York City. He was arrested in Chisinau, Moldova in July 2024 and extradited to the United States in May 2025. He pleaded guilty in November 2025 and was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon in May 2026.

Yegor Krasnov, the founder, was arrested by Ukrainian authorities in 2020. His subsequent legal status under Ukrainian law has not been reported in English-language sources.

Alongside the U.S. prosecution, the UK proscribed MKY as a terrorist organization on July 2, 2025, making membership a criminal offense in England and Wales. Canada designated MKY as a terrorist entity on December 10, 2025, in the same order that designated 764 and Terrorgram Collective.⁵