What is “PMC Ryodan” and where did it come from in Russia
On the first weekend of March, in several regions of Russia, students were left without a day off – they were canceled by the school administration. Observers linked the reason for this with the announced meetings of supporters of the so-called “PMC Ryodan” – they themselves represented this community and called such actions “meetings”.
Despite the bans, in some places “meetings” took place. Around 300 teenagers showed up at Praça do Teatro in Chita, informing local journalists about the arrests that had taken place. What is “PMC Ryodan”, about which almost no one has heard anything for another two weeks, where did it come from in Russia and who are its supporters?
What is “Ryodan”
Members of the online community “PMC Ryodan” – teenagers aged 14-16 years old, anime lovers who wear long sleeves (clothes with long sleeves) with hoodies depicting a 12-legged spider and long hair dyed black.
The Genei Ryodan (“Ghost Group”) is a 13-man mercenary criminal organization that attacks and even kills its opponents in the Hunter x Hunter (“Hunter vs. Hunter”) manga. On the coat of arms of the group – a black spider. It is this hooded spider that often distinguishes teenage supporters of PMC Ryodan.
Long Sleeves and Other Spider Clothing is a clothing brand created by a designer nicknamed Hikikomori Kai and launched in 2020. The designer denies any political overtones in his brand. In Russia, the “Redanovites” have been organizing their “meetings” for some time, without drawing attention to themselves. Teenagers went to concerts, communicated on the web and lived a normal life.
Why do they call themselves PMCs?
For many, the name of the community immediately evokes associations with the Wagner PMC, owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, which only added to the excitement around this teen subculture. Why Ryodan added the abbreviation PMC to his name is almost impossible to find out for sure.
Due to the fact that the popularity of the community has grown dramatically, many uninformed publics have appeared on the Web. The first community called PMC Ryodan, which eventually gained 190,000 members, appeared on the VKontakte social network in September 2022, and already on February 28, 2023, Roskomnadzor blocked it.
Tracking who was the first to use the name “Ryodan” for web activity is next to impossible. The creator of the aforementioned clothing brand said that “one of the” spiders “zarofil (joked. – Ed.) and opened a public page: like a war, and we are creating our own private military company “Ryodan”. It was just a stupid joke.”
Why in the Russian Federation they began to detain teenagers – “Redanovites”
Information about PMC Ryodan made headlines in the Russian media on February 22 – after a fight in Moscow’s Aviapark shopping center. According to the “spiders” themselves (nickname of those who belong to this subculture. – Ed.), they were asked to “explain the equipment” by some radical right-wing teenagers. During the fight, manga fans were able to fight back, and the video of the fight was posted by the original public administrator “PMC Ryodan” Ali with the caption: “Death to the bald *** anam in hell” and went viral.
“Spiders” began to be accused of allegedly demonstrating against migrants and football fans. And after the fight in Aviapark, the police began to be on duty in shopping centers across Russia. During the week, the number of arrests of teenagers, whom the police mistook for “spiders”, exceeded 500 people.
As a result, “PMC Ryodan” from a public of interests began to turn into a movement that does not really exist. Videos surfaced online showing teenagers dressed in black who didn’t even know what “Ryodan” was, being forced to publicly apologize on camera and beaten. Audiences parodying the original “PMC Ryodan” began to spread rapidly, and also appeared in Ukraine and Belarus.
How did the authorities react to all this?
Large-scale arrests of teenagers could not get past Russian authorities. State Duma deputies again spoke about the “pernicious influence of the West on young people” and about the intention to ban many things that modern teenagers are fond of – from anime to the Dota 2 video game.
The latter was connected with PMC Ryodan by the head of the Safe Internet League, Yekaterina Mizulina, saying that those who played this game “now belong to the fascist Ryodan movement and mock people”. Dona Mizulina did not mention in her speech the bullying of the subculture’s own supporters. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov also issued a statement: “It is important to stop illegal actions. Of course, this is a pseudo-subculture that comes with a minus sign and does not bring anything good to our youth.”
The wave of manga-loving teenagers’ activity, which has moved from the Web into real life, has spread from Russia to neighboring countries. “Meetings” of “spiders” or those who want to be or seem to be, took place in Ukraine and Belarus. In Ukraine, some even saw a trace of Russian propaganda in the fact that they also have subculture followings.
True, the “meetings” were quickly suppressed by the security forces, so local supporters of “PMC Ryodan” could not materialize into some noticeable phenomenon in Ukraine and Belarus. At the same time, experts unanimously argue that PMC Ryodan still remains an insignificant community that appeared out of nowhere, and the phenomenon of its popularity can only be associated with increased attention from the press and security forces.
Source: DW
Anna White is a journalist at 247 News Reel, where she writes on world news and current events. She is known for her insightful analysis and compelling storytelling. Anna’s articles have been widely read and shared, earning her a reputation as a talented and respected journalist. She delivers in-depth and accurate understanding of the world’s most pressing issues.