New Revolutionary Alternative (NRA) is a Russian group of leftist extremists that claimed responsibility for several bombings in the Moscow region between 1996 and 1999. In several public statements, the group decried government security services and state efforts to repress anti-government radicals. NRA took particular issue with military conscription. It claimed responsibility for attempted bombings of two enlistment centers and a military prosecutor's office between 1996 and 1998. During that same period, NRA also claimed responsibility for a small bombing outside of the Peruvian embassy and the destruction of a statue of Tsar Nicholas II. <P><br /><br />NRA's most famous attack occurred on April 4th, 1999, when it detonated a bomb outside of a central Moscow office of the Federal Security Service (FSB). The bomb exploded between 3 and 3:30 am with the force of several pounds of TNT. Two people were injured and office equipment and the foundation of the building were damaged. The attack was the second on the site in less than a year, after a small bomb (also reputedly the work of NRA) damaged a reception room in 1998. <P><br /><br />After the attack on the FSB office, security officials went after the group and other left-wing radical terrorists. Four group members eventually received prison sentences ranging from 5-9 years in 2003: Andrei Sokolov, Olga Nevskaya, Nadezhda Raks, and Larisa Romanova. Another member, Alexander Biriukov, was ordered by a court to undergo psychological treatment after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia during his trial. In 2002, the FSB created a new unit, the Department to Combat Anti-Globalism and Youth Extremism, to focus on leftist radicals. The new department named NRA as one of its principle targets, though the group has not been credited with an attack since the 1999 FSB bombing. <P>  <br />

The size and structure of the NRA has never been made clear. That the group has not been credited with any attacks since 1999 suggests that it may have been very small  --  perhaps consisting of only the few suspects arrested in 2000 and 2001. The NRA fits into a larger movement of anti-government leftists in Russia. In addition, many world-wide anarchist websites proclaim solidarity with NRA. The goals of these groups are often difficult to distinguish from radical right-wing parties. Both sets of radicals decry Russia's nascent capitalism, and often espouse extreme nationalism and racism as well. Russian security officials generally equate the NRA with leftist "anarchists," whose goal is to hit back at the Putin regime. Russia's economic resurgence since the 1998 financial collapse has lessened their appeal and impact, however.