Digital Rehearsal, Gaming Communities, and Youth Pathways to Violence – GNET

In the morning on 16 December 2025, local police were called to a college in Gorki-2, a 30 minute-drive West of Moscow metropolis centre. A 15-year-old pupil – named in reporting as Timofey K. – stabbed a ten -year-old pupil to dying and additional injured a safety guard on the college. In the hours following, it was revealed that the attacker had posted a manifesto on a Telegram group chat and shared it with classmates. Tracing references from Russian social media posts and native media reporting, the Repository of Extremist Aligned Documents (READ) was capable of find the manifesto for evaluation and make it out there to platform customers. Exhibiting a mix of Islamophobia, Nihilistic Violent Extremism (NVE) and white supremacist Great Replacement rhetoric impressed by earlier assaults, the assault stands for instance of the persistence of earlier attackers’ narratives in addition to their combination with the more and more recognised NVE landscape. 

According to Telegram messages, the manifesto was posted to 2 group chats: one utilized by a few of his classmates and one other in a Russian-language group for the online game GoreField. The recreation’s listing page on Steam describes it as “a chaotic physics-driven sandbox where creativity meets destruction,” and accommodates a mature content material tag for “realistic blood pooling and dismemberment [and] ragdolls which react to wounds.” Like different shooter video games on this type, it options blocky graphics and the power to create customized maps or mods, which could be shared with different customers. It is vital to focus on that members of the Telegram chat for this recreation – lots of them showing to even be youngsters – have been very vocal of their rejection of the assault, posting each official chat-wide and extra vulgar private condemnations of the terrorist. Some apprehensive that the unfavourable consideration would have an effect on the sport, for instance, that Russian safety companies may use the assault as a pretext to ban the sport. 

In gentle of meta-analyses that “do not appear to support substantive long-term links between aggressive game content and youth aggression”, we must always view the essential digital ingredient of this assault’s context by means of the attacker’s behaviours within the group chat and his use of the gaming area, relatively than attaching them to the sport itself. Gaming on this case served as an area for play and comfortable engagement with ideological violence earlier than an assault, in a low-stakes and rehearsed expression of id. User-generated content material that alters the video games with “harmful design” or engages in extremist visions are seen throughout the spectrum of gaming, from AAA productions to indie video games. Given the problem of regulating mods or maps that aren’t hosted on main gaming platforms, understanding the ideological dynamics could also be extra helpful, on this case, than selling an outright ban on sure video games or options. As the UK age-gating of adult content has proven, rising friction to entry with out addressing underlying ideological, social and private drives can inadvertently trigger these in search of violent or censored content material in the direction of other risks. 

With these concerns in thoughts, this perception discusses the net exercise and manifesto of the Moscow Oblast School attacker to unpack the motivations and ideological drivers behind the occasion. It traces his pre-attack expressions of ideology, the references and inspirations behind his manifesto, and closes with a short have a look at post-attack reactions from completely different communities. 

Ideological Motivations

The map-making operate on outstanding video video games has been used each to apply assaults or to glorify and recreate past ones, each by Islamic and extreme-right users. Notably, the Moscow perpetrator made numerous such recreations; one such map is of a Mosque. Online conversations within the six months main as much as the assault reveal a persistent perception within the evil and damaging nature of each Islam and Islamism, an equivalence the attacker attracts explicitly within the manifesto, the place he justified violence in opposition to Muslims as a part of a battle for Russia’s Christian, European soul. That the attacker expressed his views throughout the social dynamics of a publicly seen however low-friction, gaming-oriented chat populated by others round his age factors to the potential worth in proportionate, behaviour-led safeguarding that’s delicate to escalation alerts with out treating gaming communities as inherently suspect.

Figure 1: Two maps made by the perpetrator (Left: Mosque, proper: Utoya Island).

Violence was additional evoked by the attacker as a justified response to assaults by jihadist terrorists, doubtlessly evoking the idea of cumulative extremism and made potential by witnessing footage of earlier assaults by jihadists. On 22 September 2025, two months earlier than his assault and after posting the Mosque map, Timofey posted “there will be no more [mods/maps] from me.” This perception seems to have formed the assault itself: within the livestream, the perpetrator strikes by means of the varsity asking youthful college students about their nationality. The pupil he finally killed was a Tajik, hailing from a nation which is over 95% Muslim. This prompted a response from Tajikistan, calling for justice and for motion in opposition to xenophobia in Russia. 

The Islamophobic throughline can be seen within the attacker’s specific affiliation with Brenton Tarrant, who carried out the 2019 Christchurch Mosque attacks and has been celebrated by extreme-right terrorists ever since. The manifesto, as many have executed earlier than, cites Tarrant in a number of locations; it discusses his “love” of Christianity for saving Europe throughout the Crusades, in addition to referring to the Great Replacement as each the title of Tarrant’s manifesto and a broader conspiracy theory that white persons are being deliberately changed with non-white immigrants. In the Moscow attacker’s manifesto, sections are divided by subject and titled in methods harking back to Tarrant, and his portrayal of immigrants as “invaders” additional aligns with the attitude that violence is important and even anticipated.

Figure 2: Cropped picture of an indication written by Timofey studying “Happy Birthday, Brenton!”, October twenty seventh, 2025. Pictured are an Othala rune, utilized by the SS, and a Celtic Cross utilized by white supremacists.

The textual content is replete with different extreme-right messaging past the Islamophobic focus. Its cowl bears a big picture of a sonnenrad, 2019 Halle synagogue attacker Stefan Balliet is talked about, and Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels is quoted. Another map the attacker created for GoreField is a recreation of the positioning at Utoya island, Norway (Figure 1), the place Anders Breivik carried out his assault “exactly as it was on July 22, 2011”. There is an extra indication that the attacker was a fan of Payton Gendron, the 2022 Buffalo shooter, having commented on shared maps emulating the positioning of this assault. Other American right-wing terrorists like Dylann Roof are talked about regardless of variations to the Russian context, a testomony to the globalisation of the extreme-right and of copycats specifically. 

In the identical vein, Timofey consists of in his manifesto reward for six non-white attackers who held some extent of extreme-right views and consists of directions on the development of do-it-yourself weapons and explosives, with the precise affordance that different underage people may have issue accessing firearms on the market. This, learn along side requires others, ought to be learn as an intention for his manifesto to be unfold and incite additional assaults. However, relatively than translate it into English – the lingua franca of such manifestos, as seen with assaults equivalent to Bratislava – the manifesto was posted to a comparatively area of interest Telegram channel and written in Cyrillic.

Nihilism and Gore

Figure 3: An edit of Timofey emphasising each gore and help of NVE teams.

While the attacker’s affinity and inspiration from the extreme-right is abundantly clear, the presence of some NVE concepts is vital to notice, given the rise in each perpetration of, and responses to, such assaults. This subculture of extremist exercise is pushed by misanthropy and the assumption within the uselessness of life. In some circumstances, networks that encourage and distribute NVE materials are also connected to extreme-right groups. Rather than changing ideology, NVE right here seems to operate as an aesthetic orientation that coexists with and amplifies extreme-right that means (on this case, the white race). Regardless of ideological perspective, the traces are evident in Moscow; in the course of the assault, the perpetrator wore a T-shirt studying ‘No Lives Matter’ and beforehand wore a NLM patch on his vest – each the identify of a bunch and a basic motto for this motion. Similar objects and references have been made by the Antioch High School shooter earlier in 2025. 

The attacker’s manifesto was titled “My Hate” or “My Anger” and refers to hatred of society, of life, and of different races, as a motivating issue a number of occasions. The perpetrator talks about his loneliness, stress, and disgust at having to be part of society with out having been requested. This is adopted by statements concerning the meaninglessness of life and telling the reader explicitly that society is guilty: “YOU are the reason for this,” he says. Much of this aligns with earlier identification of delinquent emotions as widespread throughlines amongst NVE actors, the place social alienation is mapped onto emotions of meaninglessness, hate and violent responses.  

Subcultures such because the True Crime Community (TCC) flow into and interact with video content material exhibiting or celebrating acts of violence and sometimes gore. It is additional evident from references within the doc and elsewhere that he had consumed footage of assaults on social media. Following the assault, he posed with the body of the 10-year-old victim earlier than a failed hostage-taking and the eventual arrest. 

Reception

In the GoreField Telegram channel populated largely by younger folks, memes gamifying the assault, many AI-generated, expressed each approving and disavowing views; no matter motive, these examples ought to be seen as decreasing the seriousness with which acts of such violence are perceived, participating sarcastically by means of memeification. The impact right here could be to take severity away from the assaults and successfully desensitise towards violence, in flip decreasing empathy and inhibitions, even when the created content material was in opposition to the attacker.

Figure 4: A meme depicting Tarrant and the Moscow attacker. Tarrant asks: “Timofey what are you doing?” to which Timofey replies “This is ROFLS”

In the group chat of a Russian right-wing extremist, pictures of the attacker have been additional shared and quotes from the manifesto attributed to “Timothy the kid.” His youth supplied these customers with a further side to be celebrated in his dedication to the Russian white race at such a younger age. Notably, this transient flurry of consideration rapidly ended, and stated group chat moved on inside days. These two positions – the memeification and the fleeting, localised extreme-right celebration – function examples of the ephemeral, momentary nature of smaller-scale right-wing terrorism in an info area crowded with such occasions, consistently shifting on to the following. 

Conclusion

The Moscow assault demonstrates the continued presence of NVE-influenced exercise on-line, which has been current in Eastern Europe for a while, facilitated on this case by the intermixing with extreme-right violent texts from throughout a number of continents. It demonstrates the malleability of NVE-aligned teams and beliefs to meld with extra brazenly ideological and long-standing positions relatively than the generalised rejection of that means and id, on this case, showing to current each private grievances and instability mediated by means of Islamophobic white supremacy. This is a difficult line to draw and requires additional clarification in analysis and apply to make sure correct responses are potential. 

Another stand-out space for concern is the youth side; NVE teams have been recognized to deliberately target young people, notably those that are susceptible or experiencing private points. This is similar demographic from which many extremist actors are drawn. While much less regulated apps like Telegram proceed to host youth communities, there may be much less alternative to intervene. In the absence of enforceable international regulation – given its susceptibility to political reversal or consumer displacement throughout platforms – a wider societal change is required to deal with the elements driving curiosity and participation in extremism. Over-securitising youth as a response may push to more and more secretive and subversive behaviours; social infrastructure, psychological well being affordances and community-driven care are prone to be more practical and fewer negatively obtained in areas the place youngsters put up edgy content material and categorical distaste for societal establishments. In the close to time period, platforms can deal with lowering the circulation of manifestos by means of cross-platform flagging, doubtlessly even figuring out manifesto-style language as it’s uploaded, based mostly on content material that always emulates recognized examples, whereas longer-term prevention will depend on broader social help.

The attacker’s actions spotlight the importance of small, community-based chats as areas the place private pursuits can operate as shops for ideological expression and the rehearsal of violent fantasies, with out essentially making intent express. Moving ahead, this case gives insights into pre-attack actions and into the expression of ideological beliefs in digital chats, as seen within the digital footprints of prior attackers. Understanding the escalation indicators of extremist behaviour in minors who have interaction with extremist-inspired gaming content material however haven’t but triggered monitoring for violent behaviours is an important step. P/CVE practitioners will want consciousness of your entire digital ecosystem to make helpful interventions, together with information of the social areas the place susceptible people spend time and the indicators and symbols related to such threats.

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Harrison Pates is a PhD pupil within the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. His analysis explores the up to date far-right and their use of historic narratives for ideological functions, typically on social media & elsewhere on-line. Harrison can be Project Manager on the Repository of Extremist Aligned Documents (READ), a particular venture of the Centre for Statecraft and National Security (CSNS). 

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