The Finnish Broadcasting Company, Yle, has tracked down a Finnish neo-who it calls a “driving force behind the xenophobic riots in Great Britain.”

As well as being an admin in the ‘Southport Wake Up’ group, which had 14,000 members who discussed strike targets and tactics for attacks particularly targeting non-white people and Muslims, the man in his 20s from southern Finland hosts his own Finnish-language neo-nazi group.

The ‘Southport Wake Up’ group was formed specifically to exploit public anger over the recent fatal stabbing of three girls in the English town in order to whip up racist and Islamophobic sentiment and organise riots.
According to UK media, the attacker suspected of killing the girls is a British-born teenage boy from a Christian Rwandan family.

The Finnish man reportedly distributed instructions on arson to the other members of the group, among other things. According to the British antifascist research group Red Flare, the instructions came from a Russian-Ukrainian neo-Nazi group, again underlining the Kremlin’s backing for the far-right and its efforts to incite racist hate and public unrest.

Sharing the instructions, the Finn wrote: "Something fun to read," in addition to offering advice to the rioters on how to protect their identity and participating in the discussion on the choice of targets for attacks.

There were other admins in the group. However, the Finn was quite active and boasted, among other things, that he had "cleaned the Jews" out of the group in his role as an administrator.

The Finn, who managed the riot group, has for years kept his own channel spreading Nazi ideas on Telegram. He founded it in 2020 when he was still a minor.

The man says on his channel that he does not encourage people to engage in violence or terrorism. At the same time, however, he calls for the "extermination of the damned Jews."

He presents himself as a National Socialist and publishes posts glorifying Adolf Hitler. In one video, he walks around the synagogue in Helsinki.

"We are tired of explaining to you why we want National Socialism," he says in one voice message.

The Yle site publishes a clip of a speech defending National Socialism posted by the neo-nazi on Telegram. The speaker's voice has been changed.
The man's Telegram channel has more than 300 followers from different countries. In addition, he has accounts with services such as Gab and Odysee. On the former Twitter, he has had at least five accounts.

The Southport riots seem to have brought the young Finnish neo-Nazi influence. Through them, he has been able to distribute extremist material to a tenfold wider audience.

According to YLE's information, he has not been convicted of any serious crime.

At the turn of 2021, however, he said on Telegram that he had been the subject of a police investigation. According to the man, the police suspected him of preparing to carry out an aggravated crime against life or health and confiscated hard drives from his home.

According to YLE's information, the investigation has not led to charges. In the police and district court records, the investigation is recorded under the milder heading of unlawful threats.

When Yle journalist Tuomas Rimpiläinen arrived at the man's door to ask for an interview, nothing happened at first. After a long wait, the young man opened the door.
Speaking to the journalist, he did not directly admit a connection between himself and the pseudonym who ran the Southport Wake Up group. However, confronted with the evidence against him, he begrudgingly confessed that he was an active member of the ‘riot squad’, saying, “Yup, I guess.”

A couple of hours earlier, he had urged his followers to fabricate false reports of crime in order to overwhelm the English police.

Dozens of police officers were injured in the riots which particularly targeted Muslims and refugees.
The man says he had ‘anticipated’ the rioting in Telegram groups that sprang up around the riots, knowing this would attract the interest of authorities.

"I thought there would be something to talk to the police or something like that. I am ready for it," he told the Yle journalist.

The conversation at the doorstep lasted only ten minutes. The journalist noted that the man was polite, but glancing around around, apparently nervous that there might be police officers nearby.

He did not want to discuss what he’s trying to achieve through his actions, telling the journalist, “I can't think of anything.”

Asked if he felt that his writings and statements made him partly responsible for the damage caused by the riots, he replied, “I wouldn't say yes.”

Asked again to come outside and justify his actions in a more extensive interview, he refused, grumbling that he wasn’t suitably dressed and hadn’t brushed his hair.

After this, the uncannily well-manner neo-nazi thanked the journalist for this visit, shook his hand politely and closed the door.
Shortly after the encounter, he returned to his Telegram channel where he posted a ‘fun test’ for his followers named ‘How Anti-Semitic Are You?’, posting his score of 92 out of 100.

After the Southport stabbing, false information about the incident immediately spread on Telegram and other channels, fuelling the riots, falsely accusing the perpetrator of being an asylum seeker and a Muslim, among other things.

While little direct Russian involvement has been discovered in the riots, the social media groups that incited them appear to have involved numerous far-right actors from outside Britain as active members, with the Finnish neo-nazi being one more such individual.

Photo from the culprit's Telegram page: Yle

Full Yle article (in Finnish):
https://yle.fi/a/74-20104053