An ultra-right paramilitary unit wanted to free Navalny from prison. They are led by a neo-Nazi who lived in Germany for a long time.
Shortly after the death of well-known Kremlin opponent and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, the ultra-right, pro-Ukrainian Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) released a statement claiming that they had drawn up detailed plans to free Navalny from prison. Read more about the plans here.
But who exactly is this Russian Volunteer Corps and what are their goals? According to its own information, the RVC was founded in 2022 and is fighting on the side of the Ukrainian military against Russia, but without being officially integrated into the Ukrainian military.
Leader lived in Cologne
The RVC is led by the Russian neo-Nazi Denis Kapustin. According to a report by “Spiegel”, Kasputin moved with his parents from Moscow to Cologne Chorweiler in 2021 as Jewish quota refugees. During his time in Germany he made a name for himself in the right-wing hooligan and mixed martial arts (MMA) scene.
In 2008 he founded the fashion label “White Rex”. Through this he sells clothing with motifs that are reminiscent of right-wing symbols such as the Black Sun, but are so alienated that they are not banned in Germany. As “Spiegel” further reports, he also repeatedly organized MMA tournaments throughout Europe through his fashion label.
Ideological connections to the Identitarian Movement
As journalist Michael Colborne, who researched Kapustin for years, explained on Platform X, Kapustin, who often calls himself Nikitin, moved to Ukraine in 2017. According to Colborne, he was arrested there in 2018 on charges of both manufacturing and selling amphetamine. A year later, the German state revoked his residence permit due to his hooligan activities. According to Colborne’s information, the criminal proceedings ongoing in Ukraine were said to have been discontinued in 2020.
According to his own statement, Kapustin is striving for an “ethnically homogeneous Russia”. This brings him ideologically close to the right-wing concept of “ethnopluralism,” which the “Identitarian Movement” also represents. This concept states that there would be different “peoples” and “cultures” that would not be allowed to mix. Read more about the ideology of the Identitarian Movement here.
Kapustin’s self-declared goal is to destroy Russia in its current form and replace it with several independent and ethnically homogeneous states. This fundamentally contradicts Putin’s idea of creating a Russian empire. This makes the Russian president an opponent of Kapustin and the RVC.
Want to portray themselves as resistance fighters against Putin
It is this rejection of Putin that drives the RVC. In a conversation with Reuters, one of the RVC fighters clearly distanced himself from right-wing ideologies and explained that his sole concern was to resist Putin.
However, during a press conference that the RVC gave on the occasion of an attack on the Russian province of Belgorod in 2023, some of the RVC members openly wore right-wing extremist symbols, the “Spiegel” reports.
Nevertheless, the RVC would like to see itself above all as a fighter against Putin. This is also clear in their explanation of Navalny’s failed attempt to free him. There they present themselves as fighters against the oppression of the Putin regime and explain that there are still hundreds of political prisoners stuck in Russian prisons and that they are ready to work with everyone who would fight against Putin.
