Maximilian Alexandrovich Andronnikov (; born 19 March 1974), more commonly known by his nom-de-guerre "Caesar" (), is a Russian militant who is the commander and media spokesperson of the opposition

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

group

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. He is also a member of the

Ilya Ponomarev Ilya Vladimirovich Ponomarev (russian: Илья́ Влади́мирович Пономарёв; born 6 August 1975) is a Russian politician who was a member of the State Duma from 2007 to 2016. He was the only member of the State Duma not to ...

-led Congress of People's Deputies.

Biography

Andronnikov was born on 19 March 1974 in

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...

, Russian SFSR. According to himself, he has a pedagogic education and worked as a coach in Saint Petersburg. Andronnikov was previously a member of the ultranationalist Russian Imperial Movement (RIM), a group that is publicly opposed to Vladimir Putin but has also fielded pro-Russian fighters in the War in Donbas. A member of RIM who knows Andronnikov said he left the group before the Russo-Ukrainian War began in 2014. Andronnikov was also called a witness in a 2012 case about an alleged military coup plot planned by several people led by Vladimir Kvachkov in Yekaterinburg. Andronnikov, who then headed the Saint Petersburg “military-patriotic club,” was not charged in this case. Andronnikov was working as an archery coach in February 2022 when the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine began and quickly left for Ukraine, fighting on the Ukrainian side ever since and saying earlier this year that his ultimate goal was to remove Putin from power. Before the 2023 raid, he said that he fought near the city of Bakhmut.

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Caesar, a former member of the ultranationalist, and

neo-nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

Russian Imperial Movement, described himself as a

right-wing nationalist Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right-wing nationalism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics and populism, populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti-Elitism, elitist sentiments, opposi ...

, but said that "we adhere to moderate centrist views" in the

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References

1974 births Living people Russian nationalists Russian pro-Ukraine foreign volunteers in the Russian invasion of Ukraine {{Russia-bio-stub

Biography

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See also

References