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Denis Kapustin
Denis Kapustin
Native name	Денис Евгеньевич Капустин
Nickname(s)	White Rex
Born	6 March 1984 (age 40); Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Rank	Commander of Russian Volunteer Corps
Commands	Russian Volunteer Corps
Battles / wars	Russo-Ukrainian War Russian invasion of Ukraine Bryansk Oblast raid; Belgorod Oblast incursions; Western Russia Incursion; ; ;

Denis Yevgenyevich Kapustin (Russian: Дени́с Евге́ньевич Капу́стин; born 6 March 1984), commonly known as Denis Nikitin (Дени́с Ники́тин) or by his nom-de-guerre White Rex, is a Russian-German neo-Nazi^[1]^[2] activist, former football hooligan, and militant. Kapustin became a subject of a Schengen Area-wide entry ban since spring of 2019. After moving to Ukraine, he founded the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) in 2022 and is the group's leader.^[3]

Early life

Members of the Russian Volunteer Corps on 24 May 2023. Kapustin is in the middle in black.

Born on 6 March 1984, raised in Moscow. Grandson of Efim Aronovich Karpmanskiy who was for 20 years director in chief of Sochi Circus in Russia.^[4]

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

Involvement in far-right European politics

During his time in Cologne, Kapustin was radicalised and became a well-known far-right figure who was associated with the far-right hooligan scene and was involved in football rioting. He is deeply rooted in the far-right football hooliganism scene and led a small group during the UEFA Euro 2016 riots at the 2016 European Football Championship in the port of Marseille.^[6]

The interior ministry of Herbert Reul (CDU) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, called him "one of the most influential neo-Nazi activists" in Germany, and noted that he professionalized the fighting subculture in the country.^[2] He also led a lifestyle brand called White Rex, featuring a Black Sun logo favoured by neo-Nazi groups, through which he distributed T-shirts often with violent, white nationalist, xenophobic imagery and text such as the Nazi symbol 88, which represents the eighth letter of the alphabet, "H", and stands for Heil Hitler, or the 88 Precepts of David Lane.^[7] He saw the brand as a kind of Neo-Nazi complete outfitter.^[6]

Kapustin organized and facilitated meet-ups of radical right groups across Europe and the United States, his commercialization of mixed martial arts (MMA) allowed for the expansion and increased corroboration and militancy within the radical right. 2018 Kapustin was networking throughout Europe: not only did he help set up the martial arts events, 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 also appeared as a fighter and speaker at the "Kampf der Nibelungen" (KdN). With his mixture of modern military sports exercises, international networks and neo-fascist event culture, hardly anyone was as symbolic of the professionalization of right-wing violence as Kapustin. Kapustin was the key figure in the Europe-wide networks of extreme right-wing political activists and the professionalization of physical violence.^[6]

His reach was limited in 2019 when Germany issued him a Schengen ban, or European-wide ban for “efforts against the liberal democratic constitution”.^[8] This also applies to Switzerland.

In Switzerland he provided combat-training to members of the far-right Swiss Nationalist Party (PNOS).^[7] According to Reuters he "has frequently described himself as a nationalist fighting for a Russia that belongs to ethnic Russians", but has "rejected the neo-Nazi and white supremacist characterisations."^[9] Kapustin also gave training to members of National Action, a British neo-Nazi group banned by the U.K. government.^[10]

In May 2023, he described himself as a "patriot", a "traditionalist", a "right-winger", but rejected the label "neo-Nazi", saying "you’ll never find me waving a flag with a swastika, you’ll never find me raising my hand in a Hitler salute. So why would you call me that?".^[11]

In Ukraine

He was a supporter of the Euromaidan, and since 2018, Kapustin has lived in Ukraine.^[7] Kapustin worked with the Azov Battalion, a right-wing paramilitary group, in Ukraine until its fight club, the Reconquista Club shut down in 2019.^[12]

Since January 2021 he has co-hosted the Active Club podcast with Robert Rundo, leader of the American Rise Above Movement.^[1] In Ukraine he founded the Russian Volunteer Corps in August 2022, a group of Russian volunteers fighting for Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War. According to Denis Sokolov of the Civic Council these fighters received regular salaries from the Ukrainian defence ministry in Kyiv.^[9]

In 2023 he attacked Russia's Bryansk Oblast with several RVC members.^[3] On 22 May 2023, Kapustin, as the head of Russian Volunteer Corps, was involved in the Belgorod Oblast attack, a cross-border raid into the Russian region of Belgorod Oblast.^[13]

Bibliography

Robert Claus (2017): Hooligans. Eine Welt zwischen Fußball, Gewalt und Politik. Göttingen.
Robert Claus (2020): Kampfsport für weiße Europäer — Der ‘Kampf der Nibelungen und sein Netzwerk’. In: Robert Claus: Ihr Kampf: Wie Europas extreme Rechte für den Umsturz trainiert, Bielefeld: Verlag Die Werkstatt, 2020. 55–75;
Cynthia Miller-Idriss (2020): Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right. Princeton.
Pavel Brunssen, Peter Römer, and Robert Claus (2021): ‘Defenders of European Culture’: ‘Refugee Crisis,’ Football Hooliganism, and the Right-Wing Shift in Europe, in Football, Politics and Identity, ed. James Carr, Martin J. Power, Stephen Millar, Daniel Parnell (Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 108–125; Football, Politics and Identity.