Denis Yevgenyevich Kapustin, also known as Denis Nikitin or White Rex, was born in Moscow on 6 March 1984.
In 2001, with his family, he moved to Germany on a Permanent residence permit being a Russian Jew.
News reports show that he became one of the “most influential neo-Nazi activists” in Germany, although he has rejected these neo-Nazi characterisations.
He described himself as a nationalist fighting for “A Russia that belongs to ethnic Russians“.
In 2018, four years after Russia first invaded Ukraine, Kapustin moved to Ukraine, and worked with the Azov Battalion.
In August 2022, 6 months after Russia increased its invasion of Ukraine, Kapustin founded the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC or RVK), consisting of Russian volunteers fighting for “the defence of Ukraine” from the Russian invaders.
In 2023, he went on the offensive, with the RVC attacking Russia’s Bryansk and Belgorod Oblasts.
The Russian government has now labelled him a terrorist.
On 16 November 2023, a Moscow court sentenced Kapust, in absentia, to life imprisonment in one of the toughest types of penitentiary in Russia.
Fighters in the Russian Volunteer Corps, and the Free Russia Legion, have said they are anti-Kremlin Russians who seek to overthrow President Vladimir Putin.
They have claimed responsibility for various attacks on Russian territory since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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