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Leader of Russian Volunteer Corps Placed on Interior Ministry Wanted List

Denis Kapustin Social media

Russian authorities have placed the leader of a far-right Russian military volunteer unit fighting alongside the Ukrainian Armed Forces on their wanted list, the state-run TASS news agency reported Monday.

Denis Kapustin, who heads the Russian Volunteer Corps, was added to the Russian Interior Ministry’s wanted list without specifics on the nature of the charges against him being provided, though he appears to be a suspect in an assassination attempt on a Russian businessman, TASS reported.

Russian investigators are known to have opened criminal cases against Kapustin for terrorism, participating in terrorist activities, and the illicit trafficking of explosives.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has also named Kapustin as a suspect in a plot to kill Orthodox media magnate Konstantin Malofeyev and in an attack on Russia’s Bryansk region in which two people were killed. Both incidents took place earlier in March.

Russia’s Interior Ministry also placed two of Kapustin’s alleged accomplices — Kirill Kanakhin and Alexei Ogurtsov — on its wanted list, according to TASS.

According to its manifesto, the Russian Volunteer Corps seeks to overthrow Putin and create an ethnic Russian state, abandon all imperial ambitions, and focus on the well-being of ethnic Russians.

Financial authorities in Russia placed Kapustin on its list of terrorists and extremists earlier this month, blocking his bank accounts in Russia.

Kapustin, who is also known by the name Denis Nikitin as well as by the nickname White Rex, created the Russian Volunteer Corps in 2022, according to the BBC Russian Service.

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