Denis Kapustin | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Kapustin in 2024 | |
| Native name | Денис Евгеньевич Капустин |
| Other name | Denis Nikitin |
| Nickname | White Rex |
| Born | (1984-03-06)6 March 1984 (age 41) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Allegiance | Ukraine |
| Service years | 2022–present |
| Rank | Commander |
| Commands | Russian Volunteer Corps |
| Conflicts | |
Denis Yevgenyevich Kapustin (Russian:Денис Евгеньевич Капустин; born 6 March 1984), also known asDenis Nikitin (Денис Никитин) or by hisnom de guerreWhite Rex, is a Russianneo-Nazi activist and militant. After moving to Ukraine, he founded theRussian Volunteer Corps (RVC) in 2022 and has been the group's leader, fighting on the side of Ukraine in theRusso-Ukrainian war.
Kapustin was born on 6 March 1984, and raised inMoscow. 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 toCologne, Germany.[2] According toDer Spiegel, the Kapustin family received a permanent residence permit asRussian Jews. However, when asked about her ethnic background and her supposed Jewish origins by theSpiegel journalists, Kapustin's mother simply described herself as "a Russian woman".[3][4] Kapustin studied in theNetherlands and in Germany.[5]
Kapustin entered thefootball 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 toCSKA Moscow.[8] He was deeply rooted in the football hooliganism scene and led a small group during theriots 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 onminority 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 byThor Steinar, Kapustin launched his own clothing brand, White Rex, which featured violent,white nationalist, andxenophobic elements.[9][note 1] He wanted the brand to be aNational Socialistcomplete outfitter.[8] Under the same label, Kapustin organised and facilitated meet-ups of radical right groups in Europe and across Russia throughmixed 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 ofSparta Prague andLegia 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-rightSwiss Nationalist Party (PNOS).[12] He also gave training to members ofNational 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'sSchengen Area for "efforts against the liberal democratic constitution" and his significant contribution to professionalizing the right-wing extremist martial arts scene.[14][9]
Kapustin was in Kyiv forEuromaidan in 2014,[5] and moved to Ukraine in 2017.[11] He worked with theAzov movement in Ukraine.[15][16][17]: 93, 136 [18][19] For example, he travelled withNational Corps international secretaryOlena Semeniaka 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 veteranViktor Pylypenko and activistDiana Berg, Kapustin attempted to tear away anLGBT flag carried by Pylypenko at the 2025 funeral of artist and military servicemanDavid Chichkan, which resulted in a fight stopped by both beingpepper sprayed.[22][23][24]
In March 2023, Kapustin and several other RVC membersperformed an incursion into Russia'sBryansk Oblast.[25] On 22 May, Kapustin and the RVC were involved in theBelgorod Oblast attack, a cross-border raid into Russia'sBelgorod 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 toRosfinmonitoring's list of terrorists and extremists. Russia'sFederal Security Service said it had foiled an attempt to assassinateKonstantin Malofeev organized by Kapustin, and stated the RVC was involved in an attack on an oil plant inVolgograd Oblast in 2022.[28] Russia's 2nd Western District Military Court subsequently sentenced Kapustinin absentia to life imprisonment and also convicted him oftreason and terrorist activities.[29]
On 27 December 2025, the RVC reported that Kapustin had been killed in a drone strike while fighting for Ukraine in itsZaporizhzhia Oblast and vowed to avenge his death.[5][30][31] However, the following week, theMain 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.[32][33][34]
The Antifascist Europe monitoring project described Kapustin as aneo-Nazi andwhite 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."[35] Kapustin has rejected such characterizations and said "you'll never find me waving a flag with aswastika, you'll never find me raising my hand in aHitler sign."[11][36] 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 toThe 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 ofNazi Germany.[37]
Kapustin has said he believes in theGreat Replacement conspiracy theory, that "European culture is definitely endangered", and that he opposesmulticulturalism as well as "Islamisation", "cultural Marxism", and "LGBTQ propaganda".[7][37] 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.[36] 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'".[35]
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 PresidentVladimir Putin,[2][37] which he considers "multiculturalist".[7] He rejected the adulation of Putin as a white nationalist icon outside Russia, arguing that Russia has "the biggest Muslim population on the European continent".[7] Regardingantisemitism, 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]
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 toMother Jones, Kapustin's White Rex has inspired groups like the AmericanRise Above Movement.[38] Its leader, Robert Rundo, has been reported to have a White Rex tattoo and co-hosted apodcast with Kapustin.[39][35][40] Theinterior ministry ofHerbert Reul inNorth Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, called Kapustin "one of the most influential neo-Nazi activists".[41]
