Uneasy rider

RUSSIAN flags streaming behind them and Orthodox crosses emblazoned on their leather jackets, the Night Wolves roared up to the border between Poland and Belarus on Monday, intending to ride to Warsaw and Berlin to commemorate the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany 70 years ago. They never made it through. Border guards blocked the Russian ultra-nationalist biker gang (pictured), which has close links to the Kremlin, from entering Poland. It was one of the more colourful episodes so far in Russia's efforts to use next month's anniversary of victory in the second world war as propaganda for its aggressive foreign policy, in Ukraine and throughout Europe.

The Night Wolves and their leader, Alexander Zaldostanov, are longtime backers of Russian president Vladimir Putin, and he has used them as propaganda tools before. Last August in Sevastopol, they staged a massive rally supporting Russia's annexation of Crimea that was broadcast on state television. The planned ride in Poland was clearly part of a similar campaign. Ewa Kopacz, Poland's prime minister, described it as a "provocation". Officially, Poland barred the gang for failing to provide sufficient information about its plans, saying it could not guarantee the riders' safety. A Polish foreign ministry spokesman denied that the refusal was political; other Russians travelling to Poland to mark the anniversary of victory have been allowed in, he said. The denial rang hollow, not least to the Russians. The Russian foreign ministry called the Polish statement an "obvious lie".

Polish leaders are currently among Europe's most forthright opponents of Russian foreign policy, and the Night Wolves' ride was clearly calculated to needle them. It succeeded. For Poles, the memory of the Red Army's march across their country in 1945 recalls not just their liberation from the Nazis, but their subsequent domination by the Soviet Union. One poll found that 52% of Poles wanted the Night Wolves kept out of the country. But the nationalist Russian bikers have found a surprising ally: a Polish nationalist motorcycle gang called Rajd Katyński (Katyn Rally). The gang draws its name from its custom of organising memorial rides to the Katyn Forest in Russia, where Soviet secret police massacred thousands of captive Polish military officers in 1940.

Why would a Polish biker gang founded to condemn the Soviet Union's actions in Poland support a Russian biker gang's plans to celebrate the Soviet Union's actions in Poland? “It’s biker solidarity,” says Wiktor Węgrzyn, Katyn Rally's founder. Mr Węgrzyn, a 75-year-old with a bristling handlebar moustache, says Russian bikers greeted his group warmly during their first rally to Katyn, and recalls friendly evenings with them in Moscow's Arbat district. He says he was not aware of the Night Wolves' pro-Kremlin views, nor does he care: it is not their fault that they “know a different history”.

After the Polish government announced it would bar the Night Wolves, Katyn Rally called the decision "shameful and cowardly". A number of the group's members travelled to the Belarus border on Monday, hoping the Night Wolves would be allowed through anyway. When the Russians were blocked, the Polish bikers retraced the route they would have followed with the Night Wolves back to Warsaw. On Monday evening the Katyn Rally bikers arrived at Warsaw's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where Mr Wegrzyn and other gang members offered interviews to Russian reporters condemning the Polish government's decision. A few of those in the small crowd offered anti-American or anti-European comments. A Catholic priest who rides with the Rally led a prayer.

The media circus in Warsaw had a staged quality. Certainly, the Russian and Polish biker groups share some affinities, such as their extreme-right politics. When not riding, Mr Węgrzyn heads the election committee of Grzegorz Braun, a far-right candidate in Poland's presidential election, which is due May 10th. (Mr Braun is a monarchist and an open anti-Semite who has warned that the war in Ukraine could lead to “a German-Russian condominium under Jewish rule”; he has less than 1% support in polls.)

But most Poles are alarmed by the way Russia is using the history of its victory over Nazi Germany to justify intervening in Ukraine and throwing its weight around in eastern Europe. The Night Wolves' ride was clearly part of the propaganda offensive, and Katyn Rally's support for the gang may not be as inexplicable as it seems. One of the Katyn Rally bikers at the Warsaw ceremony hinted at what might be the main reason for the group's support of the Russians: “I just want to continue visiting my ancestors' graves in the East.” Condemning the Polish ban on the Night Wolves is a good way to ensure that they are not banned themselves by Russia.