https://reportingradicalism.org/en/hate-symbols/organizations/trademarks/white-rex
White Rex is a far-right clothing brand formed by Russian Neo Nazi emigrant Denis Nikitin, currently hosted in Ukraine, the group has ties to the Azov movement and its affiliated Reconquista Movement (International)1, White Rex has also hosted tournaments affiliated with the CasaPound (Italy) movement2 and the Young Nationalists (Germany) wing:
A few weeks ago, the brand organized its first tournament in Europe, probably in collaboration with the fascist youth and cultural center “Casa Pound” in Rome. A guest from Germany included Andy Knape, who is the chairman of the NPD youth organization JN and only recently because of it was fined for assault. The judgment is not yet final. Knape, who has been a flood helper in the past few weeks, posted on Facebook about a JN delegation’s trip to Casa Pound. A few days later he announced the “Victory for Germany” at the White Rex tournament and posted a photo of the medal.
In his rare interviews, Nikitin has outlined his ambitious vision for White Rex as an all-encompassing lifestyle brand — a sort of Nike for Nazis
“My biggest worry is his explicit neo-Nazi views, and that the people who are accumulating around him might be responsible for attacks on ethnic minorities,” said Klymenko.
The second worry is that he is putting together an international neo-Nazi network, widely developed across Europe, almost like a terrorist cell. You can’t really guess what they’re up to — you just know that events are taking place, people are getting together. There’s no open agenda. You don’t know about his true ambitions… but the threat is there.”
Notably, the activities of Nikitin and his White Rex organisation go far beyond promoting merchandise, they extend into paramilitary style training and attacks:
Nikitin is not just about selling MMA tournaments, T-shirts, and far-right ideology to his followers — he’s also training them to fight. In recent years, he’s given combat training to British right-wing extremists at paramilitary-style boot camps in Wales; in 2016, he trained members of PNOS, the hard-line Swiss Nationalist Party which has been previously classified by the country’s federal police as an extremist group, ostensibly so they could defend themselves against asylum seekers. Nikitin has also given seminars in knife fighting — a discipline he considers to be “a vital skill for all of us — young and proud, who (are) willing to defend our streets,” according to White Rex’s website.
According to some reports, Nikitin may have been a ringleader in one of the most infamous recent episodes of hooligan violence on the international stage, when coordinated groups of Russian supporters laid waste to a much larger contingent of English fans in the French city of Marseille, leaving two Englishmen in a coma and another with slashed Achilles tendons.
In his interview with the Ukrainian website, Nikitin admitted taking part in the ferocious clashes, which broke out during the European Championship tournament in June 2016, saying his squad of hooligans had “proven to be the most energetic and powerful group” in the skirmishes.
Klymenko, who works as Eastern Europe development officer for Fare, a network of groups set up to combat discrimination in football, said he believed Nikitin was in charge of one of the groups behind the Marseille clashes; he recognized him as the masked man, identified as one of the leaders behind the violence, interviewed in a 2017 BBC documentary.
“I hit a guy in the head. If you can imagine a penalty kick, I shot a good penalty,” boasted the man, who was identified in the documentary as “Denis,” a Russian hooligan and semi-pro MMA fighter, and who wore a White Rex T-shirt.
In an interview with The Guardian earlier this year, Nikitin also admitted to having routinely carried out violent attacks on minorities with his fellow hooligans.
“I would often say to the guys, ‘OK, who wants to go kick some immigrants?’” he told the British newspaper.
And in 2022 much of the organisation moved into outright militarism by joining the war in Ukraine on the Pro-Ukrainian side, forming the Russian Volunteer Corps under Nikitin’s leadership.
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