Alexander Zaldostanov

Alexander Zaldostanov, also known as "The Surgeon", is a Russian motorcycle club leader, political activist, and former physician. He is the leader of the Night Wolves, Russia's largest motorcycle club. He is a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and was awarded the Medal "For the Return of Crimea" by Putin for his actions in "Helping Crimeans to self-determine".

Zaldostanov was born in Kirovohrad (present day Kropyvnytskyi in Ukraine, then USSR) in 1963. His father is Georgian (original spelling Zaldastanishvili), and his mother, a doctor, is Russian. Zaldostanov describes his mother as a "convinced communist", but he says that the family still prayed to Russian Orthodox icons. The Zaldostanovs spoke Russian at home, despite the father's Georgian background. The family moved to Sevastopol in the Crimea when he was young, and then again to Moscow. He was involved in the communist youth Pioneer movement as a teenager. Zaldostanov studied medicine in Moscow, and practiced as assistant of surgeries, specializing in post-traumatic facial reconstruction. He left medicine and became involved in motorcycle club activities. In the mid-1980s, he was working in a nightclub in West Berlin and married a German woman, later became German citizen. He was in demand as Moscow suffered from crime-related violence with the fall of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Zaldostanov was introduced to motorcycle culture in the mid 1980s, while he was in Berlin. He purchased a Czech-made motorcycle, and began participating in the biker scene in Moscow while still working as a surgeon. He formed the Night Wolves, Russia's first major motorcycle club, in 1989. The club maintains close ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, and promotes nationalist ideals. Moving away from themes like drugs and organized crime associated with American motorcycle clubs like the Hells Angels, Zaldostanov began to use the club for political activism in the 2000s.

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