Nikolai Bondarik is a Russian opposition nationalist and far-right activist who has been involved in various far-right organizations in Russia. He is known for his anti-Semitic views. Chairman of the public movement “Russian Party” and an old nationalist who no longer carries any weight in the far-right community of Russia.

**Short bio**

He was born on 23 October 1965 in Leningrad. In 1989-1990, he was a member of the Leningrad-based Russian Patriotic Movement (RPD) Fatherland. In February 1991 he joined Russian party (RP) of Viktor Korchagin. He was one of co-chairmen (deputy chairmen) of St. Petersburg organization of RP (chairman – Vladimir Tsikarev). In 1991-1992 he was a member of Neo-Pagan Society “Vened Union” (SV). In summer 1991, he participated in the battles in Transnistria with a group of volunteers. In June 1992 he became one of the 24 official founders of the “Union of Venids of Russia”, a political organization established on the basis of the “historical-cultural society” Union of Venids. In summer 1992, together with Vladimir Tsikarev, he was expelled from the Russian Korchagin Party with the following words “for schismatic activity and violation of party discipline”. At the end of 1992, Tsikarev and Bondarik joined the Russian Party (RP) of Vladimir Miloserdov (a major part of Korchagin’s party which had left its former leader). In early 1993 he created the “Russian Guard”, a paramilitary unit under Miloserdov’s Russian Party (RP). In March 1993, he was elected deputy chairman of the Russian Party (RP).

In the summer of 1993 he founded the newspaper “Speech”, which fought for purging the national movement of Jews. Led a group of militants to defend the House of Soviets in September-October 1993.

On 26 March 1999 the St Petersburg court sentenced Bondarik to 5 years in prison for complicity in causing bodily harm resulting in death. According to investigators, along with several RP associates, he bludgeoned to death a businessman who had cheated them out of money. After release he then worked as a correspondent and journalist for various St Petersburg publications. After the Russian March on 4 November 2007, he was detained in St Petersburg by unidentified men in plain clothes who beat him up and forced him to “cooperate”. On 24 April 2015, was sentenced under Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code to 1.5 years’ suspended imprisonment with a probation period of 3 years. In 2017, he received a five-year suspended sentence for extremist posts on the networks.

Moved to Turkey in 2021.