the anti-Putin neo-Nazi who embarrasses Zelensky –

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. This is the phrase that best summarizes the relations between the Ukrainian government and Denis Kapustin, a far-right Russian defined in no uncertain terms as a neo-Nazi by the BND, the German federal intelligence service, at the helm of the Corps of Russian Volunteers (CVR), the most largest of the three anti-Kremlin Russian militias fighting for Ukraine and aiming to overthrow Vladimir Putin. In an interview given to Politico in a hotel in the center of Kiev, Kapustin explains that he does not want blacks and homosexuals in his militia and defines himself as “definitely right-wing”, but rejects the label of neo-Nazi. Certainly his role in the war is a double-edged sword for Kiev. “We are the bad guys, but we fight once morest the really bad ones,” jokes Kapustin, who in recent weeks led a large-scale paramilitary operation in the Russian region of Belgorod, with clashes going on for days. For the Ukrainian government, the blitz was a very positive operation because it highlighted the Russian army’s inability to protect its country’s borders. But for Kiev there are many risks in keeping this character close.

The German authorities, in fact, claim that Kapustin – sometimes known as Denis Nikitin – is “one of the most influential neo-Nazi activists” on the European continent and this definition is manna from heaven for Russian propagandists, who want to disguise the bloody invasion of Ukraine as an attempt to «denazify» Kiev. The man is the owner of a far-right clothing line that bears his nom de guerre ‘White Rex’, featuring T-shirts and caps decorated with nationalist and xenophobic images, as well as the number 88, which is equivalent to the Nazi salute’ Heil Hitler’.

Kapustin’s CVR and two other anti-Putin paramilitary groups based in Ukraine – the Legion of Freedom of Russia and the Siberian Battalion – came to the attention of the media following the operation launched last March 12 around Kursk and Belgorod, remaining on Russian soil and fighting for more than two weeks. According to Politico, behind all this is actually Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR), who during cross-border raids last month, praised Russian paramilitaries as “good warriors” who “helped us since day one and have fought in many of the hottest places in Ukraine. We will try to help them as much as possible.” Kapustin points out that the militias have freedom of action once across the border, but the raids are closely coordinated with the HUR, which provides logistical assistance, controls their operational plans and weapons and pays them. All three militias are formally part of the Ukrainian armed forces, enrolled in the International Legion. “We are part of the Ukrainian army, but we have a political agenda: to get rid of Putin”, the message of the Moscow-born extremist who risks getting Volodymyr Zelensky into trouble.