The Rise Above Movement, Patriot Front and Azov Battalion
How These Movements Are Connected, Funded and Weaponized
I will be honest, January 6th has given me what some might call PTSD. We all witnessed the events that carried out that day and it’s a day none of us will forget. Jan6 has been dissected and analyzed on my show at nauseum and we all know bad actors from Antifa/BLM/FBI were embedded in the majority of peaceful MAGA folks. Fast forward to this past weekend a group of 31 Patriot Front members were arrested in Idaho and what was the reaction from majority of people? “Ah, the fedbois got caught again, look at those glowies.” I don’t blame people for having that take right away, but after digging on this group and the others we will discuss it’s simply not true. It doesn’t mean though, they aren’t leveraged for political gain for evil people to push radical change on the United States. I want to give 2 shout outs to my cohost’s on my Saturday night show Tom Forde and KH Farmer for doing a big part of the research for this. Their truth social links are linked to their names. Give them a follow. Let’s begin shall we.
As you all know in past articles I have written, to understand these groups we have to find patterns of behavior or what I was taught in school, modus operandi. We begin with the Rise Above Movement. The group was originally called the DIY Division but changed it’s name in 2017. This group is based out of Orange County and San Diego and their founder is Robert Rundo. To summarize their ideology, they are Neo Nazis that have a fight club. They train to engage in fights, hand to hand combat, ect. They believe in physically beating down their enemies.
This screenshot is from FBI criminal court documents from special agent Scott Bierwirth who was investigating this group in 2017 and 2018. Sauce
After digging further into Rundo we found an alarming amount of ties between him and Ukraine and specifically the Azov Battalion. Rundo at one point was living in many European countries like Serbia and Bosnia and took many trips to Germany, Ukraine and Italy with some of his members. Below is a picture of Rundo fighting a member of the Azov Battalion in Kyiv.
Now who was Rundo meeting specifically in the Ukraine? This brings us to Olena Semenyaka.
She has been described as the “first lady” of Ukrainian nationalism. Her pseudo-intellectualism and international networking with NeoFascist groups, as well as her guru-like command of the Azov movement in Ukraine, make her a formidable power behind the throne in the Kiev regime. Sauce
What business was discussed?
RAM was hosted by Olena Semenyaka, head of the National Corps, the political wing of the Azov Battalion, a unit of the Ukrainian National Guard with neo-Nazi and white supremacist affiliations.[20] Semenyaka later stated that Rundo and his compatriots “came to learn our ways” and “showed interest in learning how to create youth forces in the ways Azov has.”[21] During their visit, the RAM members joined the Azov Battalion for sparring at the Reconquista Club, an mixed martial arts (MMA) club affiliated with the group.[22] Rundo entered an MMA competition for white supremacists from across Europe, supposedly the first American to take part in the history of the event.[23] While in Kiev, Rundo also got a tattoo of the Viking warrior logo of White Rex, a clothing label founded by Russian MMA fighter and Azov Battalion associate Denis Nikitin.[24] –CISAC Sauce
Olena has a knack for radicalizing westerners as can be described from the FBI court records. She was dead set on these men, “learning their ways”.
With all the recent events that have gone down between Russia and Ukraine, we are all fully aware the United States government has no problem sending money and training to the military forces that reside there and that certainly includes the Azov. The same groups that our United States government has deemed enemy number 1 “white supremists” is the same government that is inadvertently paying for their training. When they got back from Europe, that training was used to carry out the violence seen in Charlottesville. More irony in the quote below…
It is important to note that the Rise Above Movement was heavily targeted by the US government for their skirmishes with mostly white Antifa in Charlottesville, VA, and Berkeley, CA.
Similarly, disgraced Alt-Right leader, Richard Spencer, has not shied away from openly supporting the neo-nazi group, while promoting President Biden’s policies regarding the conflict in Ukraine. Sauce
These talking points were weaponized by Joe Biden’s election speeches and the irony is that under an Obama/Biden admin carried out a coup in Ukraine in 2014 which they made a regime change. See how this all works?
And 2 interesting side notes here
We have seen on the recent mass shootings the number 14 on the rifles used. We have had many guesses as to what they mean. After reading this, I am convinced this is what all the 14’s have referred to in the screenshot below.
2nd site note in regards to Christchurch shooter,
And to sum this part up,
The United States has for years funded, trained, and armed the Ukrainian regime, while inadvertently, through the support of groups like the Azov Battalion, given indirect support to extremists both within the U.S. and abroad. Sauce
Now let’s get into the links with Patriot Front. Just this weekend a group of 31 Patriot Front member’s were arrested in Idaho by police and they were arrested for conspiracy to riot and other charges. Patriot Front was there to rally against a LGBTQ pride rally. This was said to be done by police who said they had active informants among the group and that’s how they were tipped off and made the arrests. Everyone immediately said they were FBI. Here is why this isn’t true.
Patriot Front was started by a man named Thomas Rousseau right after the Charlottesville riot went terribly bad. RAM were not the only neo nazi groups in “Unite The Right” rally in Charlottesville that day. Vangaurd America was another group present that day that was involved in the violence in which Rousseau was a leader of. Rousseau took the section of Vanguard America, about 70-80% of the group (called the Southern Front) and changed that to what we know as the Patriot Front today. Rousseau basically gutted the group and infighting and other issues led to Vangaurd America dissolving.
Something very important to note here is that Rousseau was 17 when he formed Patriot Front. Olena taught Rundo how to proficiently organize younger impressionable minds and the way to do that back then (according to the fbi doc) was discord servers and groups. You will see that proofed later in the article. This prior arrest report reflects Rousseau’s age from an arrest he had in Texas in 2020 so we could verify his age. Sauce
These groups know a lot of each others members since they share similar world views and you can see here that Patriot Front accepted “dual memberships” as long as they were transparent about every action they were committing.
With the formation of Patriot Front, Rousseau instituted strict rules on dual membership, requiring members to disclose affiliations with other organizations. He also required members to disclose activity on a regular basis or risk being purged from the organization. Typical offerings include distributing flyers and banner drops, proof of which are posted to Patriot Front’s social media accounts almost every day. Sauce
A very interesting picture we were able to catch from the most recent coverage of the Patriot Front arrests in Idaho was this picture here from the video. A few of the members were wearing these shirts with the Knight Templars logo on it. Interestingly enough these shirts are made by a merchandise shop owned by Robert Mundo (head of Rise Above Movement). 1st photo below is of the arrest of the Patriot Front wearing that shirt. 2nd photo is the screenshot from the merch store. Sauce
Another excerpt from the FBI case files shows Ben Daley of the Rise Above Movement offering members in exchange for lodging with other white supremacy groups to go represent them and can be seen in the screenshot below.
Patriot Front was always mocked for the way they entered events with rented moving trucks from Uhaul. They all wear masks, very physically fit, sunglasses and kakis. Patriot Front and RAM have similarities in which they train. When the cops arrested the group in Idaho they came in a Uhaul truck, found shields and spears/sticks they deemed as weapons. RAM also trained with shields and stick training as you can see in the screenshot below.
Same modus operandi.
And interestingly enough, the Patriot Front loves to be called Feds. And we can thank Joe Rogan for this. Patriot Front was having issues recruiting early on and Joe Rogan was mocking them on one of his podcasts.
“Look at these guys. Where’s the fat people? How come they’re all wearing the same clothes,” Rogan exclaimed, seemingly befuddled by YouTube footage of the Dec. 4 march cued up by guest and Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi.
“Maybe they’re real,” Rogan said, “but I’m calling bullshit.” Sauce
“Really says something about the system when half our guys weren’t even in step and we’re not even all ‘slim’ and yet we’re already being compared to the highest intelligence office at the state’s disposal,” a Patriot Front member, meanwhile, wrote in the leaked chats regarding Rogan’s statements. Added another: “The best part is that we’ll just keep having demonstrations and the same people will wonder why us ‘feds’ haven’t stopped yet.” Sauce
Calling them Feds is hiding what they really are and honestly what they want you to think. Rousseau is learning from the past mistakes they committed in the Unite The Right rally to avoid future arrests and to change public perception about who they are. They mask their identities and mostly stay off socials besides like places like Gab and Telegram. They keep physical fitness charts as well for all their members to stay disciplined and in physical shape.
The problem with all of this still is that the United States government inadvertently trains these groups as proven above, uses these vile groups to paint a broad brush on the entire America First movement and makes regular law abiding citizens enemy number 1. FBI doesn’t have to infiltrate every group like we know they did with the Proud Boys, Ray Epps, Stuart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers. They got their narrative with Jan6 and we know Ukrainian operatives like Sergei Dybynyn were there as well. Any group can be infiltrated. My humble opinion is that the FBI ignores these groups until they get the desired crime from them and then uses those crimes as narrative warfare. We the people are then punished for it. If we are going to be better than the fake news, we have to report the facts. Not every group is a glow op.
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Interesting! It makes more sense for the feds to just allow these groups to start trouble. They already know who's in what group, and how they communicate. That way, they can claim, correctly, that they are not "affiliated" with these groups. These people are not feds.
When some of the FBI brass were questioned by Jim Jordan, they would never say yes or no to ANYTHING. Similarly, they can use the excuse of an ongoing "investigation" to also not divulge any info. Because they are "investigating" these groups perpetually.
It appears to have worked quite well so far. But, I think they bluffed a little too soon, because none of these groups have done much as of late. The DHS warned everyone that white supremacist groups were going to burn down the country, but they didn't.
I knew something was up because the stupid stunts with torches didn't make any sense. If someone's really in a group like this it's doubtful that they would out themselves like that. They can't work well if they're known. It goes the same way with Antifa.
The problem is getting this information out to the public. Pretty much EVERYONE thinks these guys are feds.
Excellent reporting by the way!
I really enjoyed that. Great info, Scott. I figured the 14s represented the 14 Words, but that was so on the nose I thought there had to be fed involvement. Obviously, this ain't yer Daddy's KKK, or WAR. The connection to the Azovs is as interesting as it is terrifying, because, ultimately, it points to the involvement of very serious players and, I'm sure, gov higher up from at least two countries.