Kremlin-funded biker gang dubbed ‘Putin’s Angels’ seen making way through Europe

A Kremlin-funded Russian biker gang dubbed "Putin's Angels" have been spotted making their way across Europe.

The Night Wolves is a Russian nationalist motorcycle club founded in Moscow in 1989.

Vladimir Putin has previously referred to the club's members as his "friends" and has appeared at their rallies on a Harley-Davidson.

READ MORE: Putin awarded 'highest medal of honour' for 'patriotic concern and love'

Reports suggest the Russian government has given them millions of rubles over the years.

The bikers were even sent to fight in Crimea in 2014 and were paid 12million rubles (£142,000) to set up a "Patriot youth centre" on the formerly Ukrainian peninsula in 2015, according to The Moscow Times.

On Monday (January 9) members of The Night Wolves marched alongside ethnic Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina in a parade marking Republika Srpska Day.

Republika Srpska Day has twice been declared illegal in Bosnia. It celebrates the day Bosnian Serbs declared they were splitting from Bosnia and planning to merge with Serbia in 1992 – consequently triggering a war that claimed tens of thousands of lives.

That didn't stop 20 of Putin's bikers from joining the 2,000 marching in Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital city of Sarajevo, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

There was also another parade attended by 2,700 in Banja Luka, the de facto capital of Republika Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina's predominantly Serbian entity).

Bosnian Security Minister Selmo Cikotic warned that radical groups may attend the marches prior to the day itself.

Speaking to RFE/RL, he said intelligence suggested that members of Russia's fearsome Wagner Group mercenaries, who have been heavily involved in the fighting in Ukraine, may attend some of the events. It is not clear whether that was the case.

Men were spotted at the Sarajevo parade carrying flags in support of Russian-backed Ukrainian separatists.

The Night Wolves were actually sanctioned by the US and Canada in 2014 for supporting the annexation of Crimea and fighting alongside pro-Russian rebels.

According to Newsweek, the club's leader Aleksandr Zaldostanov (also known as The Surgeon) was one of the names included in EU sanctions after Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

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