The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) published a new report, Looks Can Be
Deceiving: Extremism Meets Paramilitarism In Central And Eastern Europe. The


<[link removed]>
<[link removed]>
CEP Report Examines Threats From Extremism & Paramilitarism In Europe

 

(New York, N.Y.) — The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) published a new report,
Looks Can Be Deceiving: Extremism Meets Paramilitarism In Central And Eastern
Europe
<[link removed]>
. The report, authored by CEP affiliated researcher Kacper Rekawek, examines
case studies from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Ukraine
and outlines potential security risks as well as avenues to mitigate threats
associated with extremism in paramilitary groups throughout Central and Eastern
Europe (CEE).

 

The activities of paramilitary organizations whose members share viewpoints
with the broader Western European far-right or its most aggressive and militant
component, the extreme right-wing (XRW), and their access to commercial
training should be of concern to officials in CEE—a region that right-wing
extremists in the West regard as a homogenous, traditional, Christian, “white”
region of Europe in which they are allegedly free to “be themselves.”

 

Two potential developments should concern policymakers and security
authorities: the potential for Western right-wing extremists to connect with
CEE paramilitaries and the potential for Western right-wing extremists making a
more concerted use of the sprawling paramilitary infrastructure in Ukraine. The
possibility of a truly transnational and paramilitary XRW arch stretching from
Moscow via CEE into the heart of Western Europe is not unthinkable.

 

Consequently, the policy recommendations of this report are aimed towards
mitigating these two potential threats. They advise a focus and further
analysis of the CEE’s pan-Slavic and non-governmental paramilitaries and their
links to Moscow; advise involving Ukrainian authorities in collecting
information about foreigners seeking training there, similar to the already
ongoing cooperation between the Ukraine and the United States; and exploring
the possibility of restricting travel of high-risk violent right-wing extremist
individuals in order to bar them from accessing the commercial training
infrastructure. Finally, the report suggests exploring the Czech Republic’s
existing legal arrangements barring paramilitary training for civilians as a
potential blueprint for similar legal mechanisms.

 

To read CEP’s report, Looks Can Be Deceiving: Extremism Meets Paramilitarism
In Central And Eastern Europe, please click here
<[link removed]>
.

 

To watch CEP’s webinar from April 20, Extremism Meets Paramilitarism In
Central, Eastern, And Southern Europe, please click here
<[link removed]>
.

 

###

Unsubscribe
<[link removed]>