Yan Petrovski | Yan Petrovski

Airborne Assault Reconnaissance Group "Rusich".

National Socialism.

Yan Igorevich Petrovsky (Russian: Ян Игорьевич Петровский, b. 1987), also known by his nom de guerre "Slavyanin" (Russian: славян, lit. "Slav") and his new legal name Vojislav Torden (Russian: Воислав Терден), is a Russian neo-Nazi and militant known as one of the leaders of the paramilitary unit "Group of Rusichi".

Yan Petrovsky is believed to be the commander of the Zimargl unit of the Rusich group, “one of the special units formed to carry out operational and reconnaissance missions on the territory of Ukraine.” According to the US Treasury Department, he took over the group’s leadership in 2022 after its leader, Alexey Milchakov, was wounded near Kharkov.

Jan Petrovsky was born in 1987 in Irkutsk, RSFSR. He moved to St. Petersburg with his mother. As a child, he was interested in history and took part in the reconstruction of medieval battles. He was going to become an architect or graphic designer in Russia, but in 2004, his mother married a Norwegian, and Jan left Russia with her and studied in Oslo as a graphic designer.

After graduating, Petrovsky began working at the True Metal Tattoo, a tattoo parlor known for its regular gatherings of Eastern European neo-Nazis. Petrovsky patrolled the streets of Tønsberg as part of the Soldiers of Odin and was associated with the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement. In 2010, the police raided the place. Petrovsky and his accomplices were detained. During the search, counterfeit documents and weapons were found in the living room. The police established that the weapons belonged to Russian radical nationalist Vyacheslav Datsik.

Petrovsky has pagan and nationalist symbols tattooed on his body: the Black Sun, the Valknut, and various runes. In an interview with the Novorossiya TV channel in 2015, he explained that he came to Ukraine to fight against the "Khazar Khaganate."

Milchakov and Petrovsky met at a paramilitary training session of the terrorist group “Russian Imperial Movement”.

In 2014, he went to Donbass, where he fought against the Ukrainian army. During this period, photographs appeared on the Internet in which Petrovsky poses against the backdrop of killed Ukrainian soldiers. In the summer of 2015, the fighters of the Rusich group announced that they were leaving Donbass. One of the reasons for Rusich leaving the battlefield was a conflict with the leader of the Luhansk People's Republic, Igor Plotnitsky.

NRK also reports on Petrovsky's participation in the civil war in Syria on the side of President Bashar al-Assad.

In 2016, Jan Petrovsky was stripped of his residence permit in Norway for staying abroad for too long and was arrested for violating immigration laws, after which he was deported.

Norwegian authorities have labeled Petrovsky a "security threat" to the country. Petrovsky was arrested at the home of Ronny Bårdsen, one of the leaders of the Nordic Resistance movement. In June 2022, as Fontanka writes, Petrovsky appeared at the funeral of war veteran Alexei Pozharova. There he effectively announced the participation of the Rusich group in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Petrovsky was involved in providing military support to Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio and his rise to power. 16 years ago