On Saturday 1 March 2025, well-known Russian opposition politicians such as Yulia Navalny, the widow of the deceased critic of the Russian government Alexei Navalny, called for a demonstration starting at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. The background to this demonstration is the anniversary of the murder of Alexei Navalny, the third anniversary of the Ukraine invasion and the murder of opposition activist Boris Nemtsov ten years ago. At the demonstration, Russian Nazis formed a demo bloc around the Russian Volunteer Corps, in which members of the III. Way also took part.
The Russian Volunteer Corps
The Russian Nazi scene does not have a unified stance on the war in Ukraine. Many Nazis from Russia are actively fighting in the Russian army. At the same time, there is also a widespread affinity among Russian Nazis to the Ukrainian Nazi scene and to Ukraine’s fight against the Russian army. For many Russian Nazis, Ukraine is a brother nation. They feel much closer to their comrades there than to their own government, which suppresses any opposition in the country. In Ukraine extreme right-wing forces have been able to fight for a certain amount of political freedom. On the Maidan and in the subsequent war in Donbass, they were able to impress with their good organisation and powerful activists.
This has also made itself apparent domestically through large right-wing rock festivals and a low level of state persecution. The good conditions for Nazis in Ukraine have also attracted a number of prominent Russian Nazis in recent years, who have identified better conditions for their political work in the neighbouring country.
One of them is Denis Kapustin, one of the best-known and most influential Nazis in Europe. The German-Russian Nazi Kapustin is a prominent hooligan and martial artist who inspired and actively helped to build up the European Nazi martial arts scene with his brand and promotion White Rex. Until he was banned from the Schengen area in 2019, Kapustin was an important pillar in the development of European structures from France to Greece. Due to repression in Russia and the good local conditions, Kapustin moved to Ukraine in 2017.
When Russia’s war with Ukraine began in 2022, Kapustin was not idle. He founded the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) with like-minded people. This unit was intended to organise Russian Nazis who wanted to fight with Ukraine against the Russian army. Unfortunately, this unit became internationally recognised during the war. This was due to two incursions by Russian units from the Ukrainian border into Russian territory in May 2023 and March 2024. What was special about these attacks was that no Ukrainian forces were involved. Instead, only Russian-organised units such as the RVC, the Russian Freedom Legion and the Siberian Battalion attacked.
Such a military operation can of course only be organised with the support of the Ukrainian army and its allies. The Ukrainian military intelligence service HUR plays a key role in this. It also had to admit the obvious links to the RVC in 2023. The presence of the Russian battalions was of great value to Ukraine. The attacks not only tested Russian border defence. It also showed that the Russian government would not start a nuclear war so quickly even if it attacked its own territory and at the same time prepared for later successes such as the attack on the Russian region of Kursk. These very important military and strategic successes were therefore achieved with the help of Kapustin and other extreme right-wing Russians and boosted them to international prominence.
The III. Way and the Ukraine question
The demonstration of the Russian opposition on 1 March was able to mobilise 800 people. It was led by the well-known liberal opposition figures Yulia Navalny, Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza. The demonstration started at Potsdamer Platz and ended in front of the Russian Embassy in Berlin at the Brandenburg Gate. The motto of the demonstration was ‘Russia against Putin‘.
One bloc in the demonstration was organised by the Russian Volunteer Corps. Almost 70 Nazis gathered under the flags of the RVC. The block was led by Vladimir ‘Ratnikov‘ Komarnitsky(24). Komarnitsky was formerly a member of the Wotan Youth in Russia and head of the Russian organisation ‘Black Bloc‘. He has been living as a refugee in Lithuania since 2021. Other familiar faces were Ilya Bogdanov(31) and Vasily ‘Cardinal‘ Kiryushchenko(28). Bogdanov is a former agent of the Russian domestic intelligence service FSB. Kiryushchenko is described as the ideological leader of the RVC and is the son of a close friend of Ukrainian President Volodimir Selenskiy. In addition to the Russian Nazis, a number of Nazis from Germany also took part in solidarity. Sebastian Schmidtke(14) took the demonstration as an opportunity to return to his old place of action. In addition to the former head of the Berlin NPD and the National Resistance Berlin, ex-NPD member Oliver Niedrich(15) also took part in the demonstration.
Even the III. Way also took the opportunity to support its close allies. Present were the Berlin head of organisation Oliver Oeltze(1), Erik Storch(2), Wicky Wietasch(3), Luca Böttcher(4), Lennart Henze(5) and Enrico Rehling(6). The participation in the RVC block is hardly unsurprising. Kapustin and the party members have known each other for years, they still know each other from the Battle of the Nibelungs. It is rather surprising that no well-known cadres from Germany have travelled to the demonstration.
The stance of III. Way on the Ukraine war is clear. Although Ukraine is ruled by a Jewish president and the otherwise hated liberal West is supplying the country extensively with weapons, the III. Way supports the Ukrainian army. The III. Way has had good contacts in Ukraine for many years and enjoys the freedoms there during its regular visits. In addition to personal ties through mutual visits with Ukrainian Nazis, III. Way also justifies its stance in the Ukraine war politically.
The III. Way rejects both Russian and American imperialism, which are cited as the cause of the war. However, the Ukrainians are recognised as having their own will in this war and III. Way wants to strengthen this will. In this world view, Russia is not only seen as the main enemy because the Russian army started the war, but also because the glorification of the Soviet Union and the Red Army has allegedly reached new heights. The Soviet Union and the Red Army as the conquerors of the Wehrmacht are naturally a particularly big thorn in the side of the III. Way. However, the III. Way did not derive enmity with the Russian people from enmity with Russian imperialism. The Russian fighters on the Ukrainian side are a particularly strong argument in favour of this distinction between imperialism and the Russian people.
The war between Russia and Ukraine is a tragedy for the III. Way, because the real problems are liberalism and the ethnic mixing of the Ukrainian and Russian populations. As long as its own political allies pursue these goals, III. Way is prepared to support them. As these forces would not be able to wage this war without the support of the liberal-capitalist states, the nationalists‘ truce with the Ukrainian government and Western supporters is also accepted. It is clear for the III. Way that the revolutionary struggle will be resumed after the end of the war. The aim of this revolution should then be the overthrow of the Selenskiy government and the liberal elites in the country. After the subsequent purge of Ukraine of corruption, capitalism, homosexuality and migrants, the sovereignty of the Ukrainian people would be restored.
At the end of this article, we would like to expressly thank the Russian and Ukrainian comrades who helped us to categorise this demonstration with their information. If you want to support the radical left structures in Ukraine in their struggle against the invasion of the Russian army and their fight against the local Nazi structures, get in touch with local structures or donate to groups like Solidarity Collectives.
