US designates Russia-based ultranationalist group as terrorist organisation

WASHINGTON: The United States is designating a Russia-based ultranationalist group called the Russian Imperial Movement as a terrorist organisation, a senior State Department official told Reuters on Monday.

The group's members cast themselves Russian Orthodox nationalists who favor restoring the monarchy and privileging the interests of ethnic Russians, Ukrainians and Belarussians.

The US State Department in its latest annual terrorism report said ethnically and racially driven terrorism had risen alarmingly in 2018 both worldwide and in the United States.