The Council originally sanctioned Hambálek in 2022 as the president of the Europe chapter of the Russian nationalist motorcycle club Nightwolves MC, based in Slovakia.
It said that Hambálek “can be connected to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin,” and that he built the Nightwolves’ Europe headquarters on a former military base using discarded military equipment, including tanks.
The Night Wolves, who have thousands of members across Eastern Europe, participated in Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea, where they stormed a gas facility and a Ukraine naval base. They later assumed a paramilitary function in the Donbass in eastern Ukraine, and were sanctioned by the U.S.
“His ongoing activities … allegedly include training Nightwolves members for active combat in Ukraine on his properties and actively promoting pro-Russian propaganda in Europe,” the sanctions listing said.
It’s not clear whether Hambálek is still associated with the Nightwolves following his 2022 sanctions listing, but his property in Trnava, Slovakia, is still blocked “due to the enactment of international sanctions.”
The Council did not explain why Hambálek had been dropped from the sanctions list now, but Fico was in no doubt.
“[It] means that someone probably admitted that those reasons were false,” he told TA3 viewers.
“[Hambálek’s sanctions listing was] allegedly because this motorcycle lover organized training sessions for some soldiers, and that he is linked to some Russian biker groups. Complete nonsense,” Fico blasted. “Can you imagine they would cut off your natural gas and electricity, that they would block your cards, that they would liquidate your business? That’s what happened to him.”
