Night Wolves: Pro-Putin biker gang sparks anger with plans to ride across Europe

Ultra-nationalist biker gang the Night Wolves plans to ride across Europe to commemorate World War Two, in a move which the Polish Prime Minister calls a 'provocation'

Putin with the leader of the Night Wolves on a visit to their headquarters (ALEXEY DRUZHININ/AFP/Getty Images)

An ultra-nationalist Russian biker gang loyal to Vladimir Putin has sparked anger in Poland with their plans to ride across Europe to commemorate the end of World War Two.

The planned road trip by the Night Wolves motorbike club is a "memorial rally" intended to "pay respects to those killed on World War Two battlefields in the struggle against Hitler's Nazis", according to the organiser Andrei Bobrovsky.

But the Polish Prime Minister, Ewa Kopacz, said she considered it a "provocation".

The fearsome figure of Alexander Zaldostanov, also known as 'The Surgeon' leader of the Night Wolves and close friend of Vladimir Putin (GENYA SAVILOV/AFP/Getty Images)

The Night Wolves were the first official bike club in the USSR, and have since developed close ties to the Kremlin and become affiliated with the anti-Maidan movement, which rejects popular calls in Ukraine for closer European integration and supports the Russian government.

The group is led by the hulking figure of Alexander Zaldostanov, also known as 'The Surgeon', who has often been pictured with Russian President Vladimir Putin, usually while riding a Harley Davidson.

The planned ride will be be 3,728 miles long and will last two weeks, passing through Belarus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, and will finish in Berlin, Germany, on 9 May.

Russian President Vladimir Putin rides alongside Night Wolves leader Alexander Zaldostanov, at a rally in Novorossiysk in 2011 (ALEXEY DRUZHININ/AFP/Getty Images)

Prime Minister Kopacz's comment reflected public anger in Poland over the ride, a nation which is an ally of Ukraine's pro-Western government, and which still suffers the scars of Soviet wartime occupation.

Jarek Podworski, a biker from Lublin in Poland said it was "unimaginable" for a group who supports pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine to ride through Europe.

He said: "We know very well what they are doing in Ukraine.

"Brandishing Russian flags, they want to trace the footsteps of the Red Army which in reality did not bring freedom to Poland.

Putin and Zaldostanov, after a meeting at the President's residence near Moscow (MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/AFP/Getty Images)

"The Russians are testing the limits of their expansion. If they pass, there is a risk that in three years they will come for good."

He called on his country to block the roads to stop the Night Wolves' ride, calling on the authorities to ban the ride through a popular Facebook page, called "No to the passage of Russian bandits through Poland".

Although the Night Wolves insist their ride has no political aim, in recent years the group has become more and more politicised, attracting criticism from other Russian motorbike clubs.

A banner depicts Putin at a Maidan camp in Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine. The Night Wolves are opponents of the pro-European Maidan movement (SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images)

Zaldostanov has led the Night Wolves' move towards politics, criticising the "savagery" of the West and the destruction of traditional values.

According to members of the club, prospective recruits must be male, from a former Soviet country, invited by an existing member and take part in club events before two years before gaining full membership.

Homosexuality is forbidden within the club, and Zaldostanov once suggested that an alternative name for the anti-Maidan movement could be "death to faggots".