Soon after the election DT was named an honorary Russian Cossack.
The Order of the Cossacks provide conservative “shock troops” -- outside of the official police or military structure -- who help Putin fight his opposition.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-russian-cossack-vladimir-putin-us-president-elect-election-victory-a7413601.html
US President-elect Donald Trump has been made an honorary Russian Cossack.
In addition to his electoral victory being applauded on the floor of the Russian Duma, he has been welcomed into the Irbis Cossack group.
Mr Trump and his entire family have been invited to attend a welcoming ceremony involving an "unforgettable programme" of traditional activities, Moscow Times reported.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/05/18/4-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-cossacks-fighting-russias-opposition-groups/?utm_term=.63c08e6916a9
4 things you need to know about the Cossacks fighting Russia’s opposition groups
Today's Cossacks are a far cry from their Czarist-era ancestors, the fierce horsemen with woollen papakha hats, sabres and horsewhips, best known as a buffer force on the borders of the Russian Empire.
But revival communities of Russians claiming Cossack heritage are increasingly making their mark as conservative shock troops, fighting alongside separatist forces in southeast Ukraine and embracing, and sometimes policing, a return to conservative values under President Vladimir Putin.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/world/europe/cossacks-are-back-in-russia-may-the-hills-tremble.html?mcubz=2&mcubz=2
To crack down on illegal migration, he announced the creation of a salaried force of 1,000 Cossack patrolmen, which — he explained in a speech to law enforcement officers — would not be restrained by the law as the police are. He put it this way: “What you cannot do, a Cossack can.”
SNIP
Still, on one of his early calls — separating two groups of brawling men — he understood that a Cossack’s presence had a psychological effect. “Are you a cop?” someone asked him, and when he answered, the room went quiet. Mr. Kovtun understood why: Policemen are bound by the law.
“A complaint cannot be made against a Cossack, and a Cossack cannot be fired,” he said. “They know Cossacks are free, and will not think too much about how to take a violator to a police station, but will simply give him a whipping. This is what people are afraid of — that a Cossack will punish the culprit in the old, traditional but fair fashion.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/01/russias-holy-warriors/303685/
Early on, Cossacks earned a reputation as anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic fanatics—in addition, of course, to being implacable foes of the region's Muslims. A people of mixed ethnic roots, bound as much by a fervent Orthodox Christian faith as by a spirited animus against Islam, Cossacks frequently pillaged their non-Orthodox neighbors, killing men, carrying off women, and seizing whatever loot they could stuff into their saddlebags. In pre-Soviet Russia (whose history from the rise of Muscovy onward was marked by tyranny, serfdom, and oppression, to say nothing of timid, even groveling deference toward despotic rulers) Cossacks held themselves above others as vol'nye, "free," but in a defiant sense of the word that approaches "willful" or "domineering." A love of liberty seemed to define their identity—even if that liberty often amounted to the bloody plunder of those around them.
= new reply since forum marked as read
