Denis Kapustin (militant)

"White Rex" redirects here. For the racer, see Rex White.
In this name that follows East Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Yevgenyevich and the family name is Kapustin.

Denis Kapustin
Kapustin in 2024
Native name
Денис Евгеньевич Капустин
Other nameDenis Nikitin
NicknameWhite Rex
Born (1984-03-06) 6 March 1984 (age 42)
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
AllegianceUkraine
Service years2022–present
RankCommander
CommandsRussian Volunteer Corps
Conflicts

Denis Yevgenyevich Kapustin (Russian: Денис Евгеньевич Капустин; born 6 March 1984), also known as Denis Nikitin (Денис Никитин) or by his nom de guerre White Rex, is a Russian neo-Nazi activist and militant. After moving to Ukraine, he founded the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) in 2022 and has been the group's leader, fighting on the side of Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Early life

Kapustin was born on 6 March 1984, and raised in Moscow. He is the grandson of Efim Aronovich Karpmanskiy who was for 20 years the head of the Sochi Circus.[1][unreliable source?]

In 2001, when he was 17, Kapustin and his parents moved to Cologne, Germany.[2] According to Der Spiegel, the Kapustin family received a permanent residence permit as Russian Jews. However, when asked about her ethnic background and her supposed Jewish origins by the Spiegel journalists, Kapustin's mother simply described herself as "a Russian woman".[3][4] Kapustin studied in the Netherlands and in Germany.[5]

Football hooliganism and mixed martial arts

Kapustin entered the football hooliganism scene in Germany, where he was a hooligan for his local Cologne team.[6] He said later that in 2004, he had been "just a common street gang skinhead, bashing immigrants in the street, setting their cars on fire, like breaking faces, whole program."[7]

At age 22, Kapustin returned to Moscow and subsequently joined Yaroslavka, a football hooligan group related to CSKA Moscow.[8] He was deeply rooted in the football hooliganism scene and led a small group during the riots at the 2016 European Football Championship in the port of Marseille.[8] Radicalized by his involvement in German hooliganism, he participated in hooligan fights and attacks on minority groups before shifting focus from street violence towards promoting his views.[6] He said that street violence was ineffective because "if we kill one immigrant every day, that's 365 immigrants in a year. But tens of thousands more will come anyway", while promoting his views on social media was more effective as it addressed the "underlying reason".[6]

After identifying a demand for far-right clothing in Russia and re-selling clothes by Thor Steinar, Kapustin launched his own clothing brand, White Rex, which featured violent, white nationalist, and xenophobic elements.[9][note 1] He wanted the brand to be a National Socialist complete outfitter.[8] Under the same label, Kapustin organised and facilitated meet-ups of radical right groups in Europe and across Russia through mixed martial arts events.[8] He also offered martial arts seminars and weapon training from Wales to Switzerland, and maintained good contacts in the fan scenes of Sparta Prague and Legia Warsaw. He appeared as a fighter and speaker at the "Kampf der Nibelungen" (Battle of the Nibelungs) event.[8] In Switzerland, Kapustin provided combat training to members of the far-right Swiss Nationalist Party (PNOS).[12] He also gave training to members of National Action, a British neo-Nazi group banned by the U.K. government.[10]

In 2019, Germany revoked Kapustin's residence permit due to his hooliganism-related activities,[11][13] and issued him an entry ban into Europe's Schengen Area for "efforts against the liberal democratic constitution" and his significant contribution to professionalizing the right-wing extremist martial arts scene.[14][9]

Ukraine and Russian Volunteer Corps

Kapustin was in Kyiv for Euromaidan in 2014,[5] and moved to Ukraine in 2017.[11] He worked with the Azov movement in Ukraine.[15][16][17]: 93, 136 [18][19] For example, he travelled with National Corps international secretary Olena Semeniaka [uk] to participate in a far-right conference in Warsaw in November 2017, and organised mixed martial arts events at Azov's Reconquista Club.[9][20]

In August 2022, Kapustin founded the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC), a unit composed of Russians fighting against Russia on the side of Ukraine.[21]

According to Ukrainian war veteran Viktor Pylypenko and activist Diana Berg, Kapustin attempted to tear away an LGBT flag carried by Pylypenko at the 2025 funeral of artist and military serviceman Davyd Chychkan, which resulted in a fight stopped by both being pepper sprayed.[22][23][24]

2023 incursions into Russia

Further information: 2023 Bryansk Oblast raid and 2023 Belgorod Oblast incursions
Russian Volunteer Corps members during a press conference on 24 May 2023; Kapustin in the front in a black uniform

In March 2023, Kapustin and several other RVC members performed an incursion into Russia's Bryansk Oblast.[25] On 22 May, Kapustin and the RVC were involved in the Belgorod Oblast attack, a cross-border raid into Russia's Belgorod Oblast.[26] On 24 May, he said the group had left Russian territory after 24 hours, and that they were satisfied with the raid at a press conference given on Ukrainian territory.[27]

Following the March incursion, Kapustin was added to Rosfinmonitoring's list of terrorists and extremists. Russia's Federal Security Service said it had foiled an attempt to assassinate Konstantin Malofeev organized by Kapustin, and stated the RVC was involved in an attack on an oil and gas plant in Volgograd Oblast in 2022.[28][29] Russia's 2nd Western District Military Court subsequently sentenced Kapustin in absentia to life imprisonment and also convicted him of treason and terrorist activities.[30]

Staged death

On 27 December 2025, the RVC reported that Kapustin had been killed in a drone strike while fighting for Ukraine in its Zaporizhzhia Oblast and vowed to avenge his death.[5][31][32] However, the following week, the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine (HUR) published a video of Kapustin and stated he was still alive. They said that Russian special services had ordered Kapustin's death, but the HUR had foiled the killing through a special operation lasting more than a month. The false reports of death were part of the special operation. The HUR reported having identified the individuals behind the assassination attempt and obtained half a million US dollars paid for the task.[33][34][35]

Political views

The Antifascist Europe monitoring project described Kapustin as a neo-Nazi and white supremacist.[11] Pavel Klymenko, a Ukrainian researcher who studies football hooligans, described Kapustin in 2018 as holding "outright neo-Nazi ideology" such as "preaching racial war and the need to 'reconquer' the 'living space' of the white man in Europe."[36] Kapustin has rejected such characterizations and said "you'll never find me waving a flag with a swastika, you'll never find me raising my hand in a Hitler sign."[11][37] In a 2023 report, PBS found a clip of Kapustin from a 2013 mixed martial arts event where he appeared to mirror Nazi salutes given by the audience.[7] Kapustin said to The Guardian in 2023 that although he believes "genocide and gas chambers are bad, regardless of who does it", he admires the culture, style and military of Nazi Germany.[38]

Kapustin has said he believes in the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, that "European culture is definitely endangered", and that he opposes multiculturalism as well as "Islamisation", "cultural Marxism", and "LGBTQ propaganda".[7][38] He has called himself a nationalist who believes that Russia belongs to ethnic Russians,[11] and said his views were conservative,[2] traditionalist, and right-wing.[37] In 2018, ProPublica quoted journalist Karim Zidan saying that Kapustin had "repackaged older white supremacist ideas for a new generation, rebranding them as 'nationalist concepts'".[36]

In 2024, Kapustin said the right-wing movement he belongs to was no longer about viewing immigrants as the enemy, but rather about opposing the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin,[2][38] which he considers multiculturalist.[7] He rejected the adulation of Putin as a white nationalist icon outside Russia, arguing that Moscow has the biggest Muslim population on the European continent.[7] Regarding antisemitism, Kapustin has said he does not understand why his American counterparts who "seem to share" his ideology have an "obsession" with Jews and believe "Jews control everything".[7]

Kapustin has said that the Russian Volunteer Corps has ideological lectures in addition to physical and military training, as he believes that "ideology is something that fortifies a unit".[2] He said he would not accept a Black, homosexual, or transgender person into the RVC, because they "would not feel comfortable" around each other.[2]

Influence

Kapustin has been described as a key figure of the European far-right political activists and hooligans.[8] Named the "chief architect" of European far-right combat sports, he was the "definitive head" of the scene's tournament network from 2013 to 2019.[9] According to Mother Jones, Kapustin's White Rex has inspired groups like the American Rise Above Movement.[39] Its leader, Robert Rundo, has been reported to have a White Rex tattoo and co-hosted a podcast with Kapustin.[40][36][41] The interior ministry of Herbert Reul in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, called Kapustin "one of the most influential neo-Nazi activists".[42]

Bibliography

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The White Rex brand expressed support for the white supremacist slogan Fourteen Words, featured the Black Sun logo favoured by neo-Nazi groups, and offered T-shirts with the symbol 88, representing the greeting Heil Hitler in the far-right scene.[10][11][12]

References

  1. ^ "Главарь «брянских террористов» оказался внуком еврейского режиссёра" (in Russian). REGNUM News Agency. Retrieved 1 January 2026.
  2. ^ a b c d e Dettmer, Jamie (3 April 2024). "Ukraine embraces far-right Russian 'bad guy' to take the battle to Putin". POLITICO. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  3. ^ "Rechtsextremer Kampfsportler Der Neonazi-Krieger". Der Spiegel (in German). 14 February 2019. Archived from the original on 21 June 2019.
  4. ^ "GUERRE EN UKRAINE: QUI SONT LA LÉGION LIBERTÉ ET LE RDK, CES UNITÉS RUSSES ANTI-POUTINE" (in French). BFM TV. 25 May 2023.
  5. ^ a b c Denysiaka, Olha (27 December 2025). "На фронті загинув командир «російського добровольчого корпусу» Денис Нікітін" [Commander of the 'Russian Volunteer Corps' Denis Nikitin Killed on the Front]. hromadske (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 27 December 2025.
  6. ^ a b c Parkin, Simon (24 April 2018). "The rise of Russia's neo-Nazi football hooligans". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 January 2026.
  7. ^ a b c d e f Hewson, Jack (25 August 2023). "Inside the controversial group of Russian dissidents fighting with Ukraine against Putin". PBS News. Retrieved 4 February 2026.
  8. ^ a b c d e f "Der extrem rechte Kampfsportboom: Rechtsextremismus". BPB (in German). 5 November 2018. Retrieved 1 January 2026.
  9. ^ a b c d René Nissen, Kiril Avramov, and Jason Roberts: "White Rex, White Nationalism, and Combat Sport", The Journal of Illiberalism Studies; Vol. 1 No. 2 (2021), pp. 19–37
  10. ^ a b "Friday Night Fights With Ukraine's Far Right". The New Republic. 30 July 2023.
  11. ^ a b c d e f Pikulicka-Wilczewska, Agnieszka (11 May 2023). "How Russians end up in a far-right militia fighting in Ukraine". Reuters. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  12. ^ a b "Russisches Freiwilligenkorps – Denis Kapustin – so tickt der russische Neonazi in der Ukraine". Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (in German). 26 May 2023. Retrieved 26 May 2023.
  13. ^ Schmitz, David (8 March 2023). "Russland wirft Kölner Neonazi Attentatsversuch auf Putin-Vertrauten vor". Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (in German). Retrieved 27 December 2025.
  14. ^ Bajrami, Besart (3 September 2019). "Russian Hooligan, Neo-Nazi and Martial Artist Denis Kapustin Barred from Schengen Area". SchengenNews. Retrieved 1 January 2026.
  15. ^ "Er lebte in Deutschland: Neonazi kämpfte für die Ukraine gegen Putin – Tod nach Luftschlag". t-online (in German). 27 December 2025. Retrieved 6 February 2026.
  16. ^ Potter, Nicholas (29 December 2025). "Denis Kapustin in der Ukraine getötet: Russische Neonazis verlieren ihren Vorkämpfer". Die Tageszeitung: taz (in German). Retrieved 6 February 2026.
  17. ^ Colborne, Michael (2022). From the fires of war: Ukraine's Azov movement and the global far right. Stuttgart: ibidem Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8382-1508-2.
  18. ^ Hume, Tim (17 February 2021). "Two Infamous White Nationalists Still Have a Platform for Their Podcast Somehow". VICE. Retrieved 6 February 2026.
  19. ^ Ourdan, Rémy (15 March 2023). "The Russian rebels fighting alongside Ukraine". Retrieved 6 February 2026.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  20. ^ Miller, Christopher (19 November 2018). "Azov, Ukraine's Most Prominent Ultranationalist Group, Sets Its Sights On U.S., Europe". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 6 February 2026.
  21. ^ "Who are Freedom of Russia Legion and other rebel groups fighting Putin?". Reuters. 14 March 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2026.
  22. ^ Mikhailov, Dmitry (18 August 2025). "Ветеран ЗСУ Пилипенко заявив про сутичку з командиром РДК через ЛГБТ-прапор на похороні художника Чичкана". Suspilne Media (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 30 December 2025.
  23. ^ "Сутичка через ЛГБТ-прапор: ветеран Віктор Пилипенко і командир РДК Денис Нікітін побилися на похороні Давида Чичкана". Zmina News (in Ukrainian). 19 August 2025. Retrieved 30 December 2025.
  24. ^ Potter, Nicholas (12 September 2025). ""Wenn die Ukraine verliert, sind wir die ersten Opfer"". Die Tageszeitung (in German). Retrieved 30 December 2025.
  25. ^ "Alleged 'terrorist' attack in West Russia fuels hard-line pressure on Putin". The Washington Post. 3 March 2023.
  26. ^ Miller, Christopher; Ivanova, Polina; Schwartz, Felicia (23 May 2023). "Militias used US armoured vehicles in attack over Russian border". Financial Times. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  27. ^ "Belgorod: Russian paramilitary group vows more incursions". BBC News. 24 May 2023. Archived from the original on 25 May 2023. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  28. ^ "Росфинмониторинг внес основателя РДК Дениса Капустина в перечень экстремистов и террористов". Новая газета Европа. 15 March 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2025.
  29. ^ "Russia says it thwarts Ukraine-backed murder plot against nationalist tycoon". Reuters. 6 March 2023. Retrieved 19 February 2026.
  30. ^ "Лидера «Русского добровольческого корпуса» Дениса Капустина заочно приговорили к пожизненному сроку". BBC News Русская служба (in Russian). 16 November 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2025.
  31. ^ "Leader of Russian Volunteer Corps Killed Fighting for Kyiv". The Moscow Times. 27 December 2025. Retrieved 27 December 2025.
  32. ^ Culverwell, Dominic (27 December 2025). "Top anti-Putin Russian commander killed fighting for Ukraine". The Kyiv Independent. Retrieved 27 December 2025.
  33. ^ "Kapustin Alive After Foiled Russian Hit Plot, HUR Says". Kyiv Post. 1 January 2026. Retrieved 1 January 2026.
  34. ^ Myronyshena, Tania (1 January 2026). "'Welcome back to life' — Ukraine's HUR faked death of top anti-Putin Russian commander, claimed Kremlin bounty money". The Kyiv Independent. Retrieved 1 January 2026.
  35. ^ "Ukrainischer Geheimdienst täuscht Tod von Milizenführer vor und kassiert Kopfgeld". Der Spiegel (in German). 1 January 2026. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2 January 2026.
  36. ^ a b c Winston, Ali; Thompson, A. C. (5 July 2018). "American Hate Group Looks to Make Allies in Europe". ProPublica. Retrieved 7 February 2026.
  37. ^ a b "Leader of anti-Putin force says expect more Russian border raids". Al Jazeera. 25 May 2023.
  38. ^ a b c Walker, Shaun (21 September 2023). "Ukraine's awkward allies: the far-right Russians fighting on Kyiv's side". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 February 2026.
  39. ^ Schatz, Bryan. "The Terrifying Rise of Alt-Right Fight Clubs". Mother Jones. Retrieved 9 January 2026.
  40. ^ Robins-Early, Nick (19 July 2018). "Facebook Let A Notorious Russian Neo Nazi Profit Off Its Platform For Years". HuffPost. Retrieved 7 February 2026.
  41. ^ "Denis Kapustin". Anti-Defamation League. Archived from the original on 25 May 2023.
  42. ^ "Back From The Dead: Ukraine Unveils Ruse On Death Of Anti-Putin Neo-Nazi Militia Leader". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 2 January 2026. Retrieved 5 February 2026.
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Kapustin_(militant)