Pro-Putin bikers spark controversy

MOSCOW: A Russian biker gang backed by President Vladimir Putin is planning to ride through Europe to celebrate the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, sparking controversy in Central Europe.
A two-week 6,000-kilometre rally by Russian bikers including the Night Wolves, a fiercely nationalistic motorcycle club, will pass through Belarus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and end in Berlin on May 9.
“To Berlin!” says a page on the biker gang’s website dedicated to the rally, an allusion to the Red Army’s famous WWII battle cry.
The commemorative event comes with tensions running high between Russia and West over the crisis in Ukraine.
The Night Wolves’ leader, Alexander Zaldostanov, who praises Stalin and has vowed to fight the anti-Putin opposition, is under US and Canadian sanctions for his support of Moscow’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine last year.
The plan sparked controversy in central Europe, with some welcoming the Russians and others saying they should be banned from European Union territory.
The Polish foreign ministry dubbed the ride a “problem”.
But bikers insist their journey is not politically motivated.
“This is a memorial rally”, said Andrei Bobrovsky, the organiser of the rally, which is set to begin on April 25.
“The main goal is to pay respects to those killed on WWII battlefields in the struggle against Hitler’s Nazis — soldiers and innocent civilians,” he told AFP.