Michail Chkhikvishvili, 21, a Georgian national also known as “Mishka,” “Michael,” “Commander Butcher,” and “Butcher,” was extradited from Moldova to the U.S. on May 22 and will be arraigned today in Brooklyn federal court.
Arrested in Chișinău in July 2024, Chkhikvishvili faces a four-count indictment in New York’s Eastern District for soliciting hate crimes and mass violence.
Prosecutors allege he is a leader of the Maniac Murder Cult—an international, racially motivated extremist group—accused of recruiting followers and plotting a mass casualty attack in New York City to advance the cult’s violent ideology.
Michail Chkhikvishvili, known by aliases including “Mishka” and “Commander Butcher,” is a leader of the Maniac Murder Cult (MKY), a violent, neo-Nazi accelerationist group that promotes terrorism and racial hatred. MKY advocates for the collapse of social order through violence and has members in the U.S. and abroad.
“As alleged, the defendant, a white supremacist, recruited others to participate in a violent campaign of hatred against racial minorities and the Jewish community and to engage in the mass killing of children and others in these communities using poison, suicide bombs, firearms, arson fires, and vehicle explosions. Today’s extradition is a giant step forward in holding the defendant accountable for his unspeakably reprehensible and vile efforts to spread fear, chaos, and hate,” said U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. for the Eastern District of New York. “Protecting our homeland, city, district, and country from violent extremists will always be one of the top priorities of the Justice Department and my office.”
Since 2021, Chkhikvishvili has circulated a manifesto titled the Hater’s Handbook, which calls for mass violence, including school shootings, suicide bombings using children, and vehicle attacks at crowded public events.
In the handbook, he claims to have “murdered for the white race” and encourages “ethnic cleansing,” particularly in the United States.
In June 2022, he traveled to Brooklyn.
By July, he was actively using Telegram to incite violence, recruit followers, and conspire with leaders of other extremist groups. Unbeknownst to him, one of his contacts was an undercover FBI agent (UC) posing as a potential recruit.
In September 2023, Chkhikvishvili told the UC that MKY applicants were expected to submit videos of beatings, arson, or murder. He suggested poisoning and arson as preferred methods and pushed for a mass murder targeting “low race targets.”
By November, he was providing the UC with bomb-making instructions and Molotov cocktail guides. He also plotted a New Year’s Eve mass casualty attack in New York City involving a person dressed as Santa Claus handing out poisoned candy to minorities.
In January 2024, he refined the plan, instructing the UC to target Jewish schools and children in Brooklyn. He provided manuals on making poisons and gases, including ricin, and shared extremist materials from jihadist groups such as ISIS. He said the attack should surpass the scale of the 2011 massacre by Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik and claimed to have already committed hate crimes in Brooklyn.
Chkhikvishvili’s radicalization efforts have had deadly consequences.
In August 2024, an attacker in Turkey livestreamed a stabbing spree outside a mosque while wearing Nazi insignia and referencing Chkhikvishvili and the Hater’s Handbook in his manifesto.
If convicted, Chkhikvishvili faces up to 50 years in prison: 20 years for soliciting violent felonies, 5 years for conspiracy, 20 years for distributing bomb- and poison-making instructions, and 5 years for transmitting threats.
He is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
The case is being investigated by the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force.