A four-hour interview with Denis Kapustin, also known as White Rex, was released on Yury Dud’s YouTube channel. Kapustin is the commander and founder of the Russian Volunteer Corps, a unit of Russian nationals fighting on Ukraine’s side.
Kapustin said he grew up in Moscow and moved to Germany with his family at age 17. According to him, the decision to emigrate coincided with his grandmother’s death and the impact of the 1998 financial crisis. He said the family left “through the Jewish line,” while stressing that he considers himself Russian and even brought his birth certificate to the interview.
He described his life in Cologne as ordinary, but said his interest in football and combat sports drew him into Moscow’s fan subculture. In Russia, he said, he took part in fighting tournaments and developed the White Rex clothing brand. He also said he was among those involved in clashes with British football fans in Marseille during Euro 2016.
A large part of the conversation focused on the war. Kapustin acknowledged that he had no combat experience before Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, then spoke about recruiting fighters, including former mercenaries, and about pay within the unit. He denied reports that RDK fighters wounded a ten-year-old child during the unit’s raid into Bryansk Region in March 2023, and said the operations in Bryansk and Belgorod regions were meant to demonstrate the existence of armed anti-Putin resistance.
Kapustin also said he was banned from entering the EU in 2019 after an article about him appeared in Spiegel. He said German authorities deemed him a threat to the democratic order. In the interview, he also set out his views on migration, LGBT issues, feminism, the Russian tricolor at anti-war rallies, and Russia’s future.
“I would stand at the head of a party ... and take part in normal, understandable, transparent political struggle,” Kapustin said, adding that he would like to change Russia, or at least part of it, for the better.