Introduction
As heavy metal music begins to play on a video, a black and white face appears on the screen, eyes cold and staring into the viewer. Written across the person’s face in English are the words “Please stop me.”
The still image quickly changes to a video of a man on the ground. Three unseen individuals, including the person holding the camera, beat and kick the man as the letters “M.K.Y.” are superimposed over the footage. Less than 20 seconds long, this is only one in a series of videos from the extremist group Maniac Murder Cult or Маньяки: культ убийства in Russian — often abbreviated as “MKY,” “MKU,” or “MMC” — whose members released the footage over the social media platforms Telegram and VKontakte.
MKY can be placed among other militant accelerationist groups that advocate for acts of violence in order to bring down the current social order. Specifically, MKY exists amid a network of threat actors called “The Com” (or “The Community) — which includes groups like 764, No Lives Matter (NLM), NSO9A, and others. With membership requirements demanding extortion, abuse, and violence — both online and offline — MKY literature instructs would-be members to participate in various degrees of offline criminality, including assault, murder, and terrorism to maintain their membership. While there are many elements of white supremacy, National Socialism and neo-Nazi occultism, the purpose of MKY’s activities is to spread disorder and chaos with the purpose of building the organisation’s notoriety rather than clearly political or revolutionary ends.
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