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Alexander Zaldostanov attends a rally of pro-Russian activists waving the Russian flag, in front of the local parliament building on February 28, 2014 in Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine
This meant that on Friday, the only identifiably Russian force descending on the Crimea were the Night Wolves.
Since 2009, they have been one of the defining elements of Russian soft power in Eastern Europe. Their biker rallies and mass rides through countries like Ukraine, Estonia, Serbia, Romania and Bosnia serve to promote Slavic pride and Russian patriotism in Moscow’s former Soviet dominions. President Putin has often joined them on these rides, although he usually plays it safe by choosing a three-wheeler.
In 2012, when he came to Ukraine on an official visit, he spent several hours riding around the Crimea with Zaldostanov and the Night Wolves while President Yanukovych was kept waiting for him in Kiev.
Putin’s ride with the Night Wolves in 2012 took him to the city of Sevastopol, which many Russians consider holy ground.
“We are here to defend our country, or at least the parts of it that remains ours. We will defend it from the fascists who have come to power. So let it be known to all of them. Wherever we are, wherever the Night Wolves are, that should be considered Russia.”
In his view, “Russia” would include a swathe of Ukraine reaching far beyond the Crimea. On Saturday morning, the Night Wolves are organizing a massive motorcycle column that will ride from the northeast of Ukraine all the way along its eastern edge, covering nearly all of the Russian-speaking regions of the country. By evening, they will end up in Crimea, where they plan to deliver various supplies, including “means of self-defense,” to the ethnic Russian militias on the peninsula. Although Zaldostanov declined to elaborate on what these items would be, he said “they will be enough to make the Russian people here believe that the motherland has not forgotten them.”
Mikhail Klimentyev / AFP - Getty Images
Russia's President Vladimir Putin hands a medal to the leader of Nochniye Volki (the Night Wolves) biker group, Alexander Zaldostanov, also known as Khirurg (the Surgeon).
