Yan Petrovsky
Yan Igorevich Petrovsky (, born 1987), also known by his nom de guerre "Slavyan" (, ) and his new legal name Voislav Torden (Russian: Воислав Торден), is a Russian-Norwegian far-right nationalist and militant, known as one of the leaders of the Rusich Group paramilitary unit. Yan Petrovsky is designated as the commander of the Zimargl detachment of the Rusich Group, "one of the special separate units formed for operational and reconnaissance tasks on the territory of Ukraine". According to the US Department of the Treasury, in 2022 he took over as commander of the Group after the leader Alexey Milchakov was wounded near Kharkiv. Biography

Yan Petrovsky was born in 1987 in Irkutsk, Russian SFSR. With his mother, he moved to St. Petersburg. As a child, he was fond of history and participated in the reconstruction of medieval battles. He was going to study as an architect or graphic designer in Russia, but in 2004 his mother married a Norwegian, and Yan left Russia with her, and studied in Oslo as a graphic designer. After graduating from university, Petrovsky began working at the "True Metal Tattoo" tattoo parlor, an institution famous for regular gatherings of Neo-Nazis from Eastern Europe. Petrovsky patrolled the streets of Tønsberg as part of the Soldiers of Odin and was involved with the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement. In 2010, the police carried out a raid there. Petrovsky and his associates were detained. During a search in the parlor, forged documents and weapons were found. The police found that the weapon belonged to the Russian radical nationalist Viacheslav Datsik. Petrovsky is tattooed in pagan and nationalist symbolics: Black Sun, Valknut and various runes. In an interview for Novorossiya TV in 2015 he explained he came to Ukraine to fight against "Khazar kaghanate", a synonym for Jewish conspiracy. Milchakov and Petrovsky met at a paramilitary training program of the terrorist group Russian Imperial Movement. In 2014, he went to Donbas, where he fought against the Ukrainian army. During this period, pictures appeared on the Internet in which Petrovsky poses against the background of killed Ukrainian soldiers. In the summer of 2015, Rusich Group fighters announced that they were leaving Donbass. One of the versions of Rusich leaving the fighting was a conflict with the leader of the Luhansk People's Republic, Igor Plotnitsky. NRK also reports Petrovsky's participation in the Syrian civil war "as part of an far-right group" on the side of President Bashar al-Assad. In 2016, Yan Petrovsky was deprived of a residence permit in Norway because he stayed abroad too long, and was arrested for violating immigration laws, after which he was deported. The Norwegian authorities called Petrovsky a "threat to the security" of the country. Petrovsky was arrested at the home of a leading Nordic Resistance Movement member Ronny Bårdsen. In June 2022, Petrovsky appeared at the funeral of war veteran Alexei Pozharov, Fontanka wrote. There, he actually announced the participation of the Rusich Group in a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Arrest in Finland 
On 20 July 2023, Yan Petrovsky was arrested by the Finnish police in Helsinki. Ukraine requested the extradition of Yan Petrovsky. The Russian Embassy in Helsinki told RIA Novosti that it had been informed about “the detention of a Russian national in Finland at Kyiv’s request” and that it was “taking measures to provide consular assistance.”  Later, Rusich Group announced on its Telegram channel that the task force was halting “any combat missions” until “Slavyan” (Petrovsky) was extradited to Russia. Finland district court informed that the suspect entered Finland under name of Voislav Torden with his wife and three children in 19 July through the Vaalimaa border crossing. According to Petrovsky's lawyer, his intention was that his children "obtain Nordic education" and his wife was already offered a place to study in one of Finnish universities. Petrovsky also visited Finland on tourist visa in 2022 under the new identity of Torden, hoping to visit family in France before they settled in Finland, and Petrovsky was only detained on 20 July in Helsinki airport, shortly before their flight to France. According to Petrovsky's legal counsel, he was only involved in "political activity" in Ukraine but Finnish media referred to a number of interviews Petrovsky gave in Russia, describing his military activities as a combatant during war in Donbas. In October 2023 the efforts to release Petrovsky from the detainment centre by his lawyers continued, but Finnish court upheld the decision for him to remain detained until the extradition ruling is made. International sanctions 
In 2022, the Rusich Group and its commanders Milchakov and Petrovsky were included in the US sanctions list for their "special cruelty" in the battles in the Kharkiv Oblast. References

Living people
1987 births
Russian neo-Nazis
Norwegian neo-Nazis
Neo-Nazism in Russia
People of the Wagner Group
Russian individuals subject to United Kingdom sanctions
Russian military personnel of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
People from Irkutsk
Russian individuals subject to the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions
Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List