[ by Charles Cameron – neither am I a biker, nor encased in armor ]
.

**

An ultra-nationalist Russian biker gang is invading Europe, and Poland isn’t happy

Not many motorbike groups can claim to have a head of state as a supporter, but the case of Russia’s Night Wolves is an exception. President Vladimir Putin has publicly embraced the group, and after Russia’s annexation of Crimea last year, the Night Wolves were quick to parade through Crimea’s streets.

Their next ride, however, will be less trouble-free. After the group announced that it was planning a ride through Europe to celebrate the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, Poland denied the bikers access to the country. Many eastern Europeans saw something else in the ride: a ridiculing of the victims of the Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Originally, the group wanted to travel from Russia to Berlin, passing through Belarus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria and imitating the conquest of the Soviet Union from more than half a century ago, according to AFP. Rally organizer Andrei Bobrovsky told the French news agency that the main goal of the trip was “to pay respect to those killed on WWII battlefields in the struggle against Hitler’s Nazis.”

**

The Army puts on a heavy metal tour of Eastern Europe for Mr Putin

Three American armored convoys today converged in Czech Republic’s capital on tour of Eastern Europe

Vehicles have traveled more than 1,000 miles through Poland and the Baltic States as warning to Putin

Countries in the region are nervous after Russian annexation of Crimea and military unrest in the area

The Dragoon Ride convoy began in three separate branches; one in Talinn, Estonia, one in Vilnius, Linthuania and one in Drawsko Pomorskie, Poland.

**

Image sources:

Libya 360, US Dragoon Ride through Eastern Europe

Washington Post, Putin rides with the Night Wolves