The Night Wolves: Evidence of Russian Sharp Power and Propaganda from the Victory Roads’ Itinerary

Mapping the Russian Political Influence Ecosystem: The Night Wolves Biker Gang

“…Importantly, while the case of the Night Wolves shines light on prominent Russian political narratives and actors, mapping the Russian political influence ecosystem in its totality would require a more systemic, comparative approach (see, for example, Bradshaw & Howard, 2017). As the number (and the sources) of well-documented empirical cases of micro-political influence grows (e.g., Kleiner et al, 2023), it might become possible to generate insights into this phenomenon at scale.…”

“…This significance is not indicative of the sheer volume of conversation about WWII, but rather suggests a higher variety of terms associated with the discussion of this particular event. The prominence of memory-related discussions is not accidental: the Russian narrative of wartime suffering and subsequent victory serves as one of the central tenets underpinning the Russian national identity (Kleiner et al, 2023; Molnár et al, 2021). This narrative is meaningful for the purpose of this study and warrants a further investigation in the context of political influencers.…”

“…Traditional SMI metrics, such as the number of likes or the sheer size of follower networks, do not always serve as reliable estimates of the influencers' visibility and/or efficiency (see Kleiner et al, 2023 for an empirical estimation based on Google Trends). In this study, we consider the temporal patterns surrounding the Night Wolves and their online representation (when these posts occur-Appendix B).…”

“…This dynamic introduces structural changes to the concept of runet —the Russian national web, which encompasses content written in the Russian language, by users who identify as Russian, or on Russia-related topics more generally (Boichak, 2019a). Recent bans on the Russian media introduced in many Western countries in response to Russia’s military invasion and war crimes in Ukraine, along with the fragmentation of the public sphere in Russia domestically, have brought the Russian migrant publics to the fore of human geopolitics, amplifying their roles as conduits of “soft-” and “sharp power” to undermine the integrity of democratic institutions (Kleiner et al, 2023). This is not to say that all Russian diasporas engage in human geopolitics—the online public sphere also provides opportunities to express dissenting opinions (for a description of this process in Turkey, see Baser & Fasery, 2022).…”

“…Computational propaganda-the use of political bots and trolls to orchestrate interventions in online political discourse (Boichak et al, 2021)-is not the only means of nefarious actors asserting their political influence in Western democracies. In the context of influence operations, a significantyet, understudied-phenomenon is the so-called "boots on the ground"-political communities and issue groups with ties to state actors that aptly use digital tools to engage in framing and contestation of political events and agendas (Kleiner et al, 2023;Schradie, 2019). These political communities are often mobilized by the so-called political microinfluencers-for the purpose of this article, we will define them as strategic communicative actors who perform authentic political identities with the goal of influencing political attitudes and behaviors on behalf of states and state-like entities.…”