These Russian neo-Nazis are attacking their own country

class=”sc-29f61514-0 kHgAwW”>

It is brewing in the Russian border area. On Monday, Russian partisans, i.e. armed rebel troops, crossed the border at Belgorod and claimed to have captured several towns. For example, part of Russia is occupied by its own compatriots.

In a statement on Telegram, the occupiers called on the population not to resist and not to be afraid: “Today is the time for everyone to take responsibility for their future. It is time to end the dictatorship of the Kremlin.”

Behind the attacks and the embassy are two far-right Russian organizations: the “Legion Free Russia” and the “Russian Volunteer Corps”. Especially the second association is notorious in Russia.

In exile since 2010

In March, the Volunteer Corps launched an attack on behalf of Ukraine on the Russian border town of Bryansk. But why are Russian neo-Nazis fighting the Kremlin and President Vladimir Putin (70) at all?

Kacper Rekawek works at the University of Oslo and has been researching right-wing extremism and foreign fighters in Ukraine for many years. In March, he told Blick why they are doing this: “Russia in their eyes is a country that encourages migration, is ruled by a government of thieves and, in the eyes of these extremists, sends Asian-born soldiers to Ukraine to fight white Europeans,” explains Rekawek the mind of the corps. “The way Russia is currently being run is an insult to these people.”

And further: “In the 2010s, the Kremlin began to control far-right violence in its own country.” The result: the nationalists fled to Belarus or Ukraine and set up anti-Russian groups there, such as the Russian Volunteer Corps.

Azov-linked neo-Nazis attack Putin

At the forefront of this group: one of Germany’s best-known neo-Nazis, Denis Nikitin (38, née Kasputin), who moved to Germany from Russia as a child and lived as a refugee in Cologne. He himself founded the volunteer corps in August 2022 – in his own words to fight against Putin.

Nikitin is also no stranger to Switzerland. Since 2017 at the latest, the neo-Nazi has ties to the former chairman of the far-right National Oriented Swiss (PNOS) party, Florian Gerber. He allegedly handled the affairs of his clothing company White Rex in Switzerland for Nikitin, as reported by the “Spiegel”.

As the research platform Bellingcat reports, Alexey Levkin, another neo-Nazi, is also part of the volunteer corps. In a recent video, he claims that Putin is “almost done”.

As far back as 2019, journalist Michael Colborne for the Center for the Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR) noted that Levkin also has ties to the nationalist Azov regiment in Ukraine.

Colborne explained to Blick how problematic this connection is for Ukraine: “Such actions could lead to a decline in Western support for Ukraine. People don’t like Putin, but they don’t like Nazis either.” In addition, Russia could use these connections to push the “denazification of Ukraine” narrative to justify its invasion.

How is Ukraine reacting?

And indeed: Russia blames Ukraine for the occupation of Belgorod. Kiev denies – at least in part. The government said it was not directly involved in the attack.

However, after the first attack in March, Volunteer Corps leader Nikitin claimed that the attack took place with the blessing of the Ukrainian army. The suspicion that this time there could be links with the Ukrainian military leadership again is obvious.

Source: Blick