The Base

The Base was a paramilitary white supremacist network founded in 2018 by Rinaldo Nazzaro, an American operating from Russia under the alias "Norman Spear." Nazzaro had previously worked in U.S. national security contracting before establishing The Base as a clandestine international organization explicitly modeled on jihadist cell structures, oriented toward eventually attacking U.S. society and precipitating a race war. The network used encrypted online platforms to vet potential members, required in-person meetings and weapons training as part of membership, and maintained chapters across multiple U.S. states and in several foreign countries. A wave of federal arrests beginning in January 2020 effectively dismantled The Base's operational capacity, though several members subsequently appeared in other accelerationist networks.¹

Structure and Recruitment

Nazzaro designed The Base to function as a disciplined clandestine cell network rather than the more diffuse online-to-offline structure of Atomwaffen Division, its rough contemporary. Prospective members underwent encrypted vetting interviews, in which Nazzaro or senior members assessed their ideological commitment and willingness to commit violence. Members who passed vetting were expected to attend in-person training events (called "hate camps" by the FBI and prosecutors) where they practiced firearms and survival techniques.

The network maintained a presence in the Pacific Northwest, Mid-Atlantic states, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, and internationally. Nazzaro identified himself as directing operations from Russia and explicitly framed the network's goal as preparing for an inevitable race war that Base members would help trigger and survive.²

Federal Prosecutions: Complete Record

The FBI's 2020 arrest campaign against The Base produced prosecutions in at least four federal districts, plus state-level charges in Georgia. Combined sentences across known cases exceed 100 years of imprisonment.

District of Maryland (8:20-cr-00033-TDC): The core federal case involved Patrik Jordan Mathews, a former Canadian Armed Forces Reserve combat engineer who had illegally entered the United States after fleeing Canadian authorities, and Brian Mark Lemley Jr., a U.S. Army veteran. Both were arrested January 16, 2020, four days before a planned Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) Lobby Day gun rally in Richmond, Virginia, where they had discussed carrying out mass violence. Prosecutors applied a terrorism enhancement at sentencing, the first such application in a white supremacist case in the District of Maryland. U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang sentenced both defendants to nine years in federal prison on October 28, 2021, followed by three years supervised release. Lemley's charges included illegally transporting a firearm; Mathews's charges included being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm.³

William Garfield Bilbrough IV, 20, of Denton, Maryland, pleaded guilty in December 2020 to conspiring to transport and harbor Mathews after illegally entering the United States. Bilbrough had driven from Maryland to southern Michigan on August 30, 2019, to retrieve Mathews and transport him east. Judge Chuang sentenced Bilbrough to five years in federal prison.⁴

Georgia (Floyd County Superior Court): Three Base members were arrested January 17, 2020, on state conspiracy-to-murder charges. They had plotted to kill a Bartow County couple they believed were members of a local antifascist group. Luke Austin Lane, 23, Jacob Kaderli, 21, and Michael Helterbrand, 27, all pleaded guilty in November 2021 before Floyd County Superior Court Judge John Niedrach. Lane received six years; Kaderli received thirteen years; Helterbrand received twenty years.⁵

New Jersey / Eastern District of Wisconsin: Richard Tobin of Paulsboro, New Jersey, organized "Operation Kristallnacht" through Base channels in September 2019, directing members to vandalize synagogues across the country. Yousef O. Barasneh, 22, of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, spray-painted anti-Semitic graffiti and The Base's symbol on Beth Israel Sinai Congregation in Racine, Wisconsin, on September 21, 2019, pursuant to the coordinated campaign. Barasneh pleaded guilty August 12, 2020, to conspiring to violate citizens' rights under 18 U.S.C. § 241 in the Eastern District of Wisconsin (case 2:20-cr-00026) and received two months probation. Tobin pleaded guilty federally and was sentenced on November 16, 2021, to one year and one day in prison plus three years supervised release for conspiracy against rights.⁶

Ryan Burchfield, a U.S. Marine Corps dropout and Base member, traveled to Ukraine and was deported in 2022 for alleged far-right terrorist activities there. He was not prosecuted in the United States.⁷

Nazzaro and Russian Operations

Nazzaro's identity as the founder remained disputed until 2020, when investigative reporting by The Guardian and other outlets confirmed he was Rinaldo Nazzaro, a U.S. citizen with a history in national security and intelligence contracting. His continued operation of a U.S.-targeted white supremacist network from St. Petersburg, Russia drew attention from counterterrorism researchers who noted the parallels to Russian-origin influence operations, though no direct link to Russian state direction has been publicly established. Nazzaro has not been charged in the United States as of 2026.²

International Designations

Canada designated The Base as a listed terrorist entity under the Criminal Code through Order in Council P.C. 2021-31, dated February 2, 2021, published in the Canada Gazette, Part 2, Volume 155, Number 2 (February 3, 2021). The designation was made alongside Atomwaffen Division, the Proud Boys, and the Russian Imperial Movement.⁸

The United Kingdom proscribed The Base under The Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) (No. 3) Order 2021 (Statutory Instrument 2021 No. 1318). The order was debated in the House of Lords on July 15, 2021. The Home Secretary's proscription statement described The Base as "concerned in terrorism" and noted its connections to Atomwaffen Division and its accelerationist ideology.⁹

Australia announced The Base's listing as a terrorist organization on November 24, 2021, through Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews. It was the second far-right designation in Australia after Sonnenkrieg Division (August 2021).¹⁰

New Zealand designated The Base and the Proud Boys as terrorist organizations in June 2022.¹¹

The European Union designated The Base on July 26, 2024, through Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2055 and Council Decision (CFSP) 2024/2056, under the EU's CP 931 terrorism sanctions framework. It was the first time the EU had ever designated a far-right group as a terrorist organization.¹²

The United States has not designated The Base under any federal terrorism statute. As a U.S.-founded domestic organization, The Base is ineligible for designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under 18 U.S.C. § 2339B, which applies only to groups designated as foreign by the Secretary of State. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has made no SDN listing for The Base or Rinaldo Nazzaro as of 2026.¹³

Congressional Scrutiny

The House Subcommittee on Military Personnel held a hearing titled "Alarming Incidents of White Supremacy in the Military -- How to Stop It?" on February 11, 2020 (116th Congress, CHRG-116hhrg42962), with Subcommittee Chairwoman Jackie Speier (D-CA) presiding. Speier described The Base as seeking "to use terrorism to start a race war and collapse the United States." Witnesses Heidi Beirich (SPLC) and Mark Pitcavage (ADL) testified about the group. Beirich noted that twenty percent of The Base's prospective recruits in recorded vetting interviews had described themselves as active-duty military or military veterans, and noted leadership was based in Russia.¹⁴

2024-2026 Resurgence and European Operations

Following the collapse of The Base's U.S. operational capacity in 2020-2021, Nazzaro began rebuilding international cells. By November 2023, the group was assessed as operating in at least 18 countries.

Netherlands: On August 20, 2024, Dutch police arrested three individuals (aged 16, 18, and 26, from Westerhoven, Veenendaal, and Hengelo) on charges of incitement to terrorism and membership in The Base. The Openbaar Ministerie (Dutch Public Prosecutor's Office) announced prosecution demands on March 3, 2025. The OM sought conditional prison sentences and community service for the adult defendants, and a conditional sentence plus community service for the juvenile.¹⁵

Italy: In September 2024, two individuals were arrested in Italy on charges including Base membership, incitement to violence, and extorting minors for child sexual abuse material.¹⁶

Spain: On November 25, 2025, the Spanish National Police General Commissariat of Information, supported by Europol's European Counter Terrorism Centre, arrested three suspected Base members in Madrid and Valencia during a three-day operation involving five house searches. Firearms, bladed weapons, ammunition, military tactical gear, and neo-Nazi propaganda were seized. Investigators stated the Spanish cell was in direct contact with Nazzaro.¹⁷

White Phoenix: Ukraine Cell

The Base established a Ukrainian-operating cell called White Phoenix by at least early 2025. The cell posted videos in late March 2025 showing members spray-painting The Base symbol in Kyiv, Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kharkiv. In April 2025, Nazzaro announced via Telegram that cash payments were available for attacks on Ukrainian power plants, military and police vehicles, government buildings, and officials. It was the first time The Base had explicitly aligned itself with Russian military objectives.

On July 10, 2025, White Phoenix claimed responsibility for the killing of SBU Colonel Ivan Voronych in the Holosiivskyi district of Kyiv (see 2025 Kyiv SBU Assassination). Voronych was shot multiple times with a silenced pistol and died at the scene; he was the highest-ranking SBU officer killed in a targeted Kyiv assassination since Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion. The SBU subsequently announced it had killed two alleged Russian FSB-directed operatives implicated in the murder. Whether White Phoenix directed or conducted the killing, or whether the claim was opportunistic, remained contested; counterterrorism sources told the Kyiv Independent the claim was credible, but the SBU did not confirm Base involvement.¹⁸

In February 2026, The Base's Ukrainian branch claimed a car bombing in Odesa targeting an officer described as assisting Russia.

FBI Investigation and 2024 Resurgence

Christopher Tarrant, a supervisory special agent in the FBI's Detroit domestic terrorism unit, confirmed in 2022 that an active FBI investigation into Nazzaro was underway. The Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (MCAC), a DHS-affiliated fusion center, noted in an April 2025 advisory that the FBI's reallocation of resources away from domestic terrorism had contributed to The Base's operational resurgence in 2024-2025.¹⁹