In a revealing article for The Daily Star, Scott Hesketh and Colin Cortbus write about training camps in Wales where neo-Nazi thugs “are being drilled in unarmed combat and fighting using knives and assault rifles”. According to the authors, anti-terror police are monitoring the activities of the training camps which – under the leadership of fitness instructor and author Craig Fraser – might be used “to prepare for a wave of anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic attacks”.
Moreover, the authors mention that neo-Nazi thugs were “also put through fitness sessions by trainers from Russian neo-Nazi group White Rex”. Since there is not much information on White Rex available in English language, I decided to “introduce” the Anglophone audience to this movement. (I am grateful to the Moscow-based Sova Centre for Information and Analysis, the most important Russian NGO that conducts research on ultranationalism, racism and political radicalism in Russia, for the information they have provided).
Denis Nikitin, founder and head of White Rex
White Rex is many things. First of all, it is a clothing brand established by Denis Nikitin that produces t-shirts, hoodies and accessories with (sometimes disguised) fascist symbols.
Mens “Zero Tolerance” t-shirt. Note the image that represents a combination of a swastika and a black sun
Ladies “Bombs 88” t-shirt. “88” stands for “Heil Hitler”
Second, White Rex is actively engaged in organising mixed martial arts (MMA) tournaments in Russia and in Europe. It is, perhaps, through this particular activity that fighters affiliated with White Rex provide fitness sessions to British neo-Nazis at training camps in Wales. In 2013, White Rex organisied a MMA tournament in Rome; one of its guests was Erich Priebke, a convicted war criminal and former SS Hauptsturmführer who died later that year.
One of White Rex’s MMA tournaments was called “The Birth of a Nation”, a reference to the title of D.W. Griffith’s racist film (originally called The Clansman) that was released in 1915
Third, White Rex is a movement that propagates neo-Nazi and racist ideas among Russian youth. According to the doctrine of White Rex
White peoples of Europe, falling to onslaught of propaganda of alien values, lost the spirit of a path-breaker, the spirit of a fighter, the Spirit of a Warrior! One of the main objectives of White Rex is to revive this spirit. Modern society brings up philistines and consumers; yet we want to see WARRIORS – people who are strong morally and physically.
White Rex also promotes, and (co-)organises gigs of, White Power bands such as Moshpit, Brainwash, Prezumptsiya nevinovnosti (Assumption of Innocence), and, especially You Must Murder.
You Must Murder t-shirts designed by White Rex
Among activists who popularise White Rex in Russia and elsewhere one can name Roman Zentsov, the leader of the extreme right Soprotivlenie (Resistance) group. White Rex is also closely cooperating with Sergey Badyuk, a former KGB/FSB operative who became a businessman in the 1990s, but still provides training to the special forces of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate.
British anti-terror police and the Home Office may want to keep a close watch on White Rex and the individuals mentioned in this article.