Systema Clubs and Their Extensions: ‘Sleeper Cells’ and Russian Networks of Influence

Over the past twenty years, the combat technique known as “Systema” (Система, “System”) has rapidly spread beyond Russia. Former KGB agents now in power are exporting to Western democracies a practice they once banned in the USSR because it was considered subversive. Fully aware of the risks, they are pursuing a policy of establishing clubs—particularly in France—whose dangerous nature they know all too well. More broadly, it is the ideological and strategic thinking of the Russian regime that is brought to light through Systema.

Legend has it that the inventor of Systema, Mikhail Riabko, a colonel in the Spetsnaz, the Red Army’s special forces, is said to have received from his uncle—Stalin’s bodyguard—his precious combat techniques, which reportedly draw their origins from Slavic traditions, particularly those of the Cossacks. After the fall of the USSR, the practice ceased to be classified and —supposedly—spontaneously became a huge success in Russia and elsewhere in the world when former military instructors began teaching it to civilians.

Here is the official version, which is too perfect to be true. First, it reconciles Slavic pagan roots and the grandeur of the USSR too perfectly. In reality, after overthrowing the old tsarist regime, the Soviets instituted new combat methods—samoz (samozachtchita, “self-defense”) and then sambo (SAMozachtchita Bez Oroujia, “self-defense without weapons ”)—in line with their totalitarian project to erase ancestral traditions. Systema is the result of the enrichment and refinement of these new methods by Soviet military engineers and psychologists. Although they took care to preserve the best of ancient martial arts techniques, Systema’s Cossack origins are thus largely a myth, heavily staged.

As for the “intense international expansion” over the past 10 years, [it has] “no natural or visible explanation¹”.

Train, recruit, infiltrate

Above all, journalistic and academic investigations, as well as the intelligence services of various countries, have highlighted the direct or indirect links between Systema clubs and the FSB and, above all, the GRU (Glavnoïé Razvédyvatel’noïé Oupravlénié, the Main Directorate of Military Intelligence). These links are even sometimes displayed on their patches with GRU symbols, such as the bat, its emblematic animal.

For these sports clubs are in fact fronts. 

According to the old Russian intelligence technique, they constitute a semi-clandestine network. They are more or less out in the open, but behind the facade, their activities and true objectives are concealed.

The name Systema refers to the various systems that make up the human being: biomechanical (muscular, nervous, respiratory, etc.), psychological, and even spiritual. A profoundly holistic practice, then, which says a great deal about how its creators view individuals and, more broadly, the world.

The highly structured nature of Systema ends there. For it is not governed by a system of codified holds, unlike traditional martial arts (taekwondo, jiu-jitsu, judo, etc.). It is based on breathing, relaxation, improvisation, and body awareness. It is a learning process that is “65% psychological, 25% technical, and 15% physical”². The “System” is also not structured into a system of levels and ranks, such as the black, red, etc., belts found in judo or karate. This makes it a very egalitarian combat technique among practitioners—very free, very accessible, and appealing to beginners who do not wish to acquire extensive theoretical knowledge.

In concrete terms, it is “a combination of several paramilitary techniques […] ranging from hand-to-hand combat to survival in extreme situations, including knife fighting and the handling of firearms”³. The goal is to subdue the opponent as quickly as possible.

Yet, contrary to all evidence, Systema presents itself as a simple “peaceful management of tensions, a sort of ‘benevolent neutralization of the opponent’”⁴. The gap between rhetoric and reality is striking and raises questions.

The geographical distribution of clubs across the globe also raises suspicions. About eight in ten are located in Europe and North America. The United Kingdom has as many clubs as the vast continent of Asia (primarily located in Japan, South Korea, and Singapore), despite Asia being a millennia-old home of martial arts and a hundred times more populous. Why has the opening of clubs been concentrated in Western democracies, particularly in Europe?

Furthermore, it is never taught in the major chains of commercial multi-sport centers. Its practice is essentially reserved for clubs specifically dedicated to it. It is sometimes associated with other martial arts, notably aikido and budo. Several examples show how associations initially devoted to budo or aikido, having been “infiltrated,” became exclusively or primarily Systema clubs after a takeover from within.

It should be noted that Systema comes in two additional variants:

• Siberian Cossack Systema schools: folkloric in nature, they do not appear suited for learning self-defense techniques in a 21st-Century urban environment. However, they actually practice the same combat methods as non-Cossack clubs and, moreover, benefit from the prestige of embodying the mythologized origins of Systema. Their presence is particularly significant in France, where it has rapidly expanded in recent years.
• the Warfare Combat System (WCS), the South Korean version of Systema. Taught in clubs (in France, there are about half a dozen) but primarily during seminars and private lessons given by sports instructors and coaches who are independent of any organization.

The clubs deny exerting any psychological control. But regardless of the teaching methods, newcomers always find themselves de facto in a closed environment, always under the complete influence of the instructors (especially during individual coaching and at training camps cut off from the outside world), often lost among small groups of regulars.

Furthermore, other combat sports—whether they have a ranking system or not—constantly organize events (competitions, championships, etc.) that are publicized and sponsored, where the public is free to take photos and videos with complete transparency. Systema organizes only demonstrations by grandmasters and interclub matches without rankings, in which participants’ faces are often blurred in photos published by the organizers.

Teaching is, officially, the sole purpose of the clubs, which operate in a closed-off environment with a high degree of opacity. It is aimed at men, women, seniors (sometimes specifically, as in Austria with the “Systema Silver Girls and Boys”), as well as teenagers and children (as young as 8 years old).

Obviously, not all practitioners become Russian agents. But Vladimir Putin is fond of repeating that “there are no former KGB agents”: in other words, “once a KGB agent, always a KGB agent”—the same goes for the GRU. This means that the so-called “former” agents who export and teach Systema are always on standby and do not act on their own initiative. Following their training means placing oneself under the psychological influence of experts in reflexive control and becoming susceptible to manipulation without even realizing it⁵.

The “System” is not structured as a system of national and international federations, recognized by each state, issuing sports licenses to each of their members. It is divided into several branches founded by different grandmasters, whose headquarters are geographically scattered across the world or within Russia (examples: the Vassiliev School in Toronto, Canada; the Kadotchnikov School in Krasnodar, in the North Caucasus), thus appearing to have no connection to the central authority in Moscow.

Because of this (or rather thanks to this, as it is certainly intended to deliberately confuse surveillance) and unlike other combat sports where the number of licensed practitioners is recorded, the number of practitioners cannot be officially tallied.

It is a priori limited. Photos published by the clubs show classes with an average of ten to twenty people. In France, 128 associations dedicated to Systema are officially registered (a few are no longer active). But dozens of practice groups are not registered. In Germany, 63 clubs were recorded in 2017, supervised by 250 to 300 GRU agents, or an average of four agents per club⁶.

It is possible to become an instructor in just five years, which is extremely fast compared with the minimum of eleven years required in judo, for example. Each new instructor can therefore quickly train new recruits in turn, and so on. Even with a small membership base, Systema thus possesses significant capacity for expansion, particularly into strategic sectors.

Thus, although it is, all things considered, a rather niche practice, Systema had succeeded in 2014 in becoming one of the twenty physical activities offered by the Club Omnisports des Électriciens et Gaziers de France (COEGF) . This is no longer the case today, but it illustrates the desire to infiltrate the critical energy and industrial sectors, which the GRU has always targeted⁷.

It is also well established, particularly in Germany, that Systema networks seek to recruit members of law enforcement and the armed forces⁸. This is particularly illustrated by the creation, within the National Defense Sports Center (CNSD, which organizes sports activities for the French armed forces), of three Systema clubs, including one at the 27th Alpine Chasseurs Battalion (Annecy).

Systema networks also take a keen interest in survivalist circles. This strategy is symbolized by the name changes of several clubs: the very first French club, “Systema France,” founded in 2002, was renamed “Systema Survival Art” in 2022. “Systema Barcelona – Russian Martial Art,” founded in 2012, became “Systema Barcelona – Global Survival” in 2023.

Meanwhile, “Systema Celtique” co-organizes “survival and Systema” courses in Brittany with L’École Vie dans la Nature (EVN). The latter claims to have trained 4,200 participants since its founding in 2009. This is just one example: other, much better-known French survival training companies, which train far more participants each year, are led by Systema instructors or those with related backgrounds. These are often former military personnel or former police officers.

A Detour into Wellness

The networks extend into even more surprising sectors: health, paramedical services, wellness, personal development, coaching, and alternative medicine. From 2016 to 2019, Systema-Paris offered classes at the Hôtel-Dieu, one of Paris’s hospitals located on the Île de la Cité, in a room named “Cœur de Cité – Arena Lutetia,” which was clearly frequented by the hospital’s staff.

The establishment’s presence in this sector is largely due to two elements of Russian culture: traditional massage and the banya, specifically the essential step of an ice bath. However, ice baths have recently become very fashionable with the Wim Hof Method (WHM), a cryotherapy method (still highly debated).

Through the practice and teaching of the banya, cold baths, and Russian massages, the Systema networks cater to a very different audience—one that is far broader and more diverse than that of combat sports. This audience is focused on health and well-being, knows nothing about Systema and its controversial image, and is even less likely to realize the true identity of the organizers of the events in which they participate.

Furthermore, among Systema instructors and practitioners, there is an overrepresentation of massage therapists and physical therapists (there is even a Facebook page called “Kiné Systema”), hypnotherapists, yoga teachers (particularly tantric yoga), and practitioners of traditional medicine (especially Chinese medicine, notably qi gong).

Example: “LifeForce,” founded in 2017 by a physical therapist and osteopath trained in Systema (in Moscow, among other places), offers a personal development method to “regain health and vitality,” taught online (courses at €127). As well as during workshops held notably in an old farmhouse in the remote Tarn region, converted into a dojo by a couple who previously ran Systema Toulon. In addition to being a Systema instructor, the woman is a practitioner of Chinese medicine and the man is a physical therapist. Their dojo hosts a variety of wellness and dance events, among others—not to mention Systema introductory sessions, of course—with full-board accommodation for participants.

Wellness and personal development workshops generally last two days (€510 per person for the “LifeForce” basic two-day package, including accommodation, for example), over a weekend. But sometimes they last up to a full week-long retreat to disconnect from the outside world. The prices for Systema club training courses are much lower: a few dozen euros per day, generally lasting one to three days.

We hope to have the opportunity to explore other examples soon, particularly the highly revealing connections with Thierry Casasnovas’s raw food movement “Régénère,” under investigation for abuse of vulnerability and the illegal practice of medicine.

On their personal and professional social media accounts, these therapists and coaches often promote a narrative favorable to the interests of the current Russian regime by addressing, among other topics, national and international politics. Given that their digital accounts—particularly their professional ones—display and purport to reflect their actual activities, we can assume that they likely deliver the same type of discourse during the workshops they organize. Yet the number of participants is not insignificant. In 2022, LifeForce alone claimed to have trained “several thousand people” over five years, a figure that seems plausible given the frequency and attendance at the workshops. In more or less alternative circles, alternative truths and propaganda can easily thrive.

The Middle Ages and Warrior Fantasy

Building on the themes of well-being and gentle physical activities, connections have also been forged with the performing arts (dance, circus, theater), in which certain movements resemble yoga or Pilates practices.

These artistic fields include stage combat and historical reenactments of armed battles, notably those of the Varangians, the Swedish Vikings who founded Kievan Rus’, considered the cradle of Russia. As well as behourd, which allows for injuries inflicted by medieval weapons. This ties in with Cossack clubs and their folklore (traditional costume; dances; handling of the chachka, the Cossack saber, etc.).

The passion for violent historical reenactments is also found among Russian imperialists such as Aleksandr Barkashov, leader of the neo-Nazi organization Russian National Unity, or Igor Girkin, former Minister of Defense of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, who fought in the Transnistrian War in 1992 as a Cossack volunteer⁹.

This idealization of a virile and violent Middle Ages is a manifestation of the anti-modern and anti-Western ideology (deemed effeminate and weak) formulated by Alexander Dugin, one of the leading contemporary Russian imperialist ideologues¹⁰.

The strategy of expansion, in the style of the Comintern, of Systema beyond its domain of combat (literally and figuratively) and “self-defense” first appeared in France with Yoga Systema, created in 2009. It then experienced a marked acceleration starting in 2014 and then 2018, which broadly coincides with the pace and peak in the creation of Systema clubs.

Can the peaks in 2014 and 2018 be explained by the Russian regime’s increased aggression and the resulting deterioration of relations with Western countries?

In 2014, Crimea was annexed, part of Donbas was invaded, and ammunition depots in Vrbětice (Czech Republic) intended for the Ukrainian army were sabotaged. In 2018, following a surge in Russian interference (referendums on the independence of Scotland and Catalonia in 2014 and 2017; the 2016 U.S. elections; etc.), Western economic and diplomatic sanctions were imposed in response to the Skripal affair.

These networks and their leaders promote themselves online, on social media, and in the media in general; some have appeared on television shows or run for local office. Their wellness or pseudoscience websites sometimes appear among the very top results on search engines. Their audience is far from negligible.

They are inexpensive to set up: classes are held primarily in public facilities (gyms, dojos, etc.) and are self-financed by the fees paid to participate in their courses. This traditional modus operandi of the GRU’s clandestine networks allows them to be less reliant on Moscow¹¹.

These highly diverse networks nevertheless all share the common feature of being linked to maintaining fitness.

Recruiting combative individuals with good physical abilities is neither new nor exclusive to Russian intelligence. Other actors (jihadists, for example) operate in a similar manner through other combat sports. However, what is particularly distinctive in this case is the total control of the network, from the creation of clubs to recruitment. This maximum level of control enhances their effectiveness and leads to the conclusion that their objective is to recruit as many people as possible.

To what end? “They are organizing combat sleeper cells,” asserts researcher Dmitri Chmelnizki, who conducted a study on the clubs in Germany in collaboration with Viktor Suvorov, a former GRU agent¹².

The “Behind Enemy Lines” training session organized on December 2, 2017, by Systema Barcelona offers insight into how Systema clubs define “self-defense,” with the program including, among other things:

• “Concealment, camouflage, and environmental awareness”
• “How to move in enemy territory”
• “Working with weapons and controlling the enemy”

Across all clubs, one can add other skills that a citizen has absolutely no need for in everyday self-defense: training sessions in the woods, including at night; lock-picking courses; handling firearms, such as assault rifles (simulators); etc.

This is why radicalized survivalists, already over-armed and over-trained, make ideal recruits.

If the goal were truly to introduce peaceful Russian self-defense, then sambo (“unarmed self-defense”) would be exported, a blend of judo and wrestling, for which there have been clubs around the world since the 1960s. The choice to export Systema (an offensive technique) rather than sambo (a non-offensive technique) is revealing of the current Russian regime’s intentions.

For under Soviet rule, a strict distinction was made between military self-defense (such as Systema) and civilian self-defense (such as sambo). Learning offensive techniques (strikes, chokeholds, etc.) was forbidden to civilians and reserved for members of the military and intelligence services. Brought to power by a popular uprising, the Bolsheviks knew better than anyone that a people can overthrow the established power and that, to avoid being overthrown in turn, it was better for the people not to master offensive techniques that could be used against law enforcement. Teaching and practicing karate was thus severely punished (with up to five years in prison), forcing karateka to create clandestine clubs (in basements or in the forest).

In a twist of history, the former KGB agents now in power are thus exporting to Western democracies a practice they once banned in the USSR because it was considered subversive. They are therefore fully aware of the dangers involved as they pursue a policy of establishing clubs whose risks they know all too well. Putin, a former intelligence agent of the Soviet regime, cannot be unaware of how the latter conceived, suppressed, and utilized martial arts for its own benefit. He himself is a great connoisseur and practitioner of these arts (judo and sambo in particular).

Furthermore, it is normally the SVR (Sloujba vnechneï razvedki, the civilian foreign intelligence service), that is in charge of activities conducted outside Russian borders. The fact that the GRU—that is, the military—organizes the Systema networks means that their nature and purpose are, by definition, military and differ from the usual activities carried out by a state’s civilian intelligence services in peacetime.

A further indicator of the danger and purpose of these clubs: their ties (particularly in Central and Eastern Europe) to the motorcycle gang the Night Wolves, which is very close to the Kremlin and has been banned from several countries since their participation in the 2014 invasion of Crimea¹³.

Another point: “Platov,” the code name assigned to Putin at the start of his career in the KGB, is a reference to General Matvei Platov (1753–1818), who commanded the regular Cossack units during the 1812 Russian campaign. With the support of irregular Cossack units, these forces carried out a strategy of harassment and guerrilla warfare against Napoleon’s troops. This guerrilla method—which contributed to the Russian Empire carving up part of Europe in 1815—has been specifically implemented in Europe, starting with France, since “Platov”—Putin—came to power.

Especially since recent publications are re-evaluating the roles he played within the KGB in Dresden. He is said to have directed the actions of far-left splinter groups in Europe, such as the Red Army Faction¹⁴. If this is accurate, the Systema networks would represent a continuation of the war of subversion waged during the Cold War against European democracies, which the fall of the USSR and the brief democratic period in Russia during the 1990s would have only temporarily put on hold.

In Russia itself, the Cossacks are once again being used for military purposes (sent to the front in Ukraine) and paramilitary purposes (Cossack Cadet Corps). And generally speaking, all physical and sporting activities are being instrumentalized or militarized by the current regime (see Iounarmia, the “All-Russian Military-Patriotic Social Movement”)¹⁵.

As for the emphasis placed on breathing and relaxation exercises: more than just for well-being, they were developed by Soviet military scientists so that soldiers, even when wounded or under stress, would maintain optimal combat effectiveness.

A strategy of global influence

The establishment of Systema clubs and their offshoots is very certainly intended, in addition to propaganda, to recruit informants, agents of influence, and sympathizers. And likely also to carry out potential acts of provocation, destabilization, intimidation, and sabotage.

This is merely a glimpse of what can be relatively easily found in open sources—and perhaps intentionally made visible. This raises the question of the extent of what is potentially much better concealed.

The actual scale and capacity for harm of the Systema networks should not be overestimated, lest we attribute more power to the Russian regime than it actually possesses and play into the hands of its propaganda (both domestic and foreign). With a GDP equivalent to that of Spain, Russia is a “poor great power”¹⁶ that needs to use asymmetric means to appear more powerful than it actually is in the face of NATO or the European Union.

But to underestimate them is to continue refusing to see the threat the regime has posed for a quarter of a century. For the export of Systema clubs is nothing new: it began in the early 1990s and multiplied starting in the early 2000s, when Putin was at the head of the FSB and then of the state. It cannot therefore be justified as a fifth column aimed at protecting itself from a supposedly threatening NATO. Indeed, NATO’s eastward expansion, its intervention in Bosnia, the “Color Revolutions,” or the Maidan Revolution—usually cited by the Russian regime to accuse Europe and 

NATO of posing a threat to it, occurred after these movements began to spread and multiply.

They were created because this regime of former KGB agents is driven by a thirst for revenge over the fall of the USSR, which it describes as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20^th Century ”¹⁷. It does not promote positive values, as Soviet propaganda sought to do, but instead delivers a discourse that is solely vindictive, hateful, and revanchist. This is true of its propaganda in general, as well as of what emerges across the content of Systema and affiliated networks.

Violence, aggression, natural law (the law of the strongest or “law of the jungle”), and a return to a pre-state way of life—as in Paleolithic times—are valued and held up as models, in a libertarian anarchist spirit. Among the proposed activities are: “Adding chaos”; “fighting”; “quarrel game”; “paleofitness “; ”paleo diet“; ”tribal atmosphere“; the ”wild nature“ of human beings; etc.

This is the opposite of the official propaganda portraying Russia as the ”Third Rome,“ the ultimate bulwark of Christian values and civilization in the face of the West’s ”decadence.” The Russian government does not defend Western civilization: as the architect of chaos, it seeks instead to destroy it, for democracy and the rule of law—inherited from the Greco-Roman tradition—stand as obstacles to its most archaic despotism and its mafia-like practices.

To achieve its ends, it practices infiltration and brutalizes Western societies through the teaching and promotion of aggressive physical activities (boxing; reenactments of combat with clubs, axes; etc.), extreme or even brutal situations (survival training; exposure to intense cold), and by creating a climate of anxiety (the need to protect oneself from daily insecurity; to prepare for conflict or crisis through survivalism).

This corresponds to what Françoise Thom calls “Putinization”: the gradual application of the same methods that, in Russia and in the former Eastern Bloc countries during the communist regimes, brought society to heel and killed democracy¹⁸. A strategy of creeping radicalization, of atmosphere, as is said of other forms of extremism.

More broadly, it is the regime’s ideological and strategic thinking that is brought to light through Systema. Their fundamentally systemic view of human beings and the world is deeply imbued with the holism of Russian intellectual history and sheds light on the concept of “non-linear war” (nelineïnaïa voyna, whose Western translation as “hybrid war” fails to capture its full meaning). This is conceived as a whole, 

in which the various protagonists—including proxies—interact with one another, act across all spheres (social, political, military) and all dimensions (physical, informational, cyberspace)¹⁹. One thing is clear: this is not an abstract, disembodied concept distant from the daily lives of Western citizens; it is happening right next door and may directly affect them.

Ultimately, the Systema networks represent a distillation of the overall practices of the current Russian regime and its ideology:

• The export to Western democracies of an attack technique purportedly purely defensive—whose Slavic roots are mythologized, with abundant borrowings from Asian martial arts, particularly Chinese ones—symbolizes its geostrategy and its Asian and anti-Western orientation;
• The elevation of force and violence as a model and as taking precedence over the law, which justifies its imperialism and its violation of international law;
• The use of pseudoscience or esotericism is the small-scale equivalent of the disinformation and propaganda waged on a large scale against Western public opinion;
• The use of freedom of association—the very same freedom that is suppressed in Russia by the law against “foreign agents,” in a mirror accusation typical of the KGB regarding its own crimes—aims to turn the values of democracies against themselves.

This last point aligns with the philosophy and technique of Systema, which consists of turning the opponent’s force against them by destabilizing them, primarily through surprise and pain, whereas other combat techniques prioritize power and movement.

Identifying and analyzing this doctrine and its modus operandi provides keys to neutralizing them: containment measures; awareness-raising, as in the fight against radicalization and sectarian abuses; drying up their financial resources; prosecuting illegal practices; etc. The French nationals who have been indicted for collusion with the enemy due to their involvement in the SOS Donbas association, were linked to Cossack networks²⁰.

1. “Combat Club: Russian Spies Seeking European Recruits,” euobserver.com, May 29, 2017
2. According to the Systema Russian Martial Art Belgium website
3. Marlène Laruelle, “Russian Militias and Their Use at Home and Abroad,” Russie.Nei.Visions, No. 113, IFRI, April 2019, p. 19
4. “Systema: What Is This Russian Martial Art with a Bad Reputation?”, La Dépêche.fr, 09/03/2024
5. “Russia Is Co-opting Angry Young Men,” The Atlantic, 08/29/2018
6. Dmitri Chmelnizki, “Школы боевых искусств «СИСТЕМА»,” 12/22/2019
7. Rémi Kauffer, A Global History of Secret Services, Perrin, 2015, p.263
8. “Learning to Choke, Strike, and Kill,” Focus, 05/26/2014
9. Marlène Laruelle, Russian Nationalism: Imaginaries, Doctrines, and Political Battlefields, Routledge, 2018, p.157
10. Dina Khapaeva, “Putin’s Gothic Russia,” Libération, 10/23/2014
11. Kauffer, ibid, pp. 373–374
12. “Combat Club: Russian Spies Recruiting Europeans,” euobserver.com, May 29, 2017
13. “Russia Is Co-opting Angry Young Men,” The Atlantic, August 29, 2018
14. Catherine Belton, Putin’s Men: How the KGB Took Over Russia Before Taking on the West, Talent Editions, 2022
15. Lucas Aubin, The Sportocracy Under Vladimir Putin: A Geopolitics of Russian Sport, Bréal, 2021; Ksenia Bolchakova and Veronika Dorman, A People Marching in Step: Russians Under Putin, Lattes, 2023
16. Frédéric Encel, The Paths to Power, Odile Jacob, 2022
17. Vladimir Putin’s 2005 annual address to the Russian nation
18. Françoise Thom, “Toward a Putinization of France?”, Desk Russie, June 23, 2024
19. Dmitry Adamsky, “The Evolution of Russian Strategic Thought and Operational Art,” Revue Défense Nationale, June 2017 (No. 801), pp. 85–92
20. “A Humanitarian Organization as a Cover: This New Case of Russian Interference in France,” L’Express, November 26, 2025