Some neo-Nazis in Russia appear to sympathize with Ukrainians and Putin's threats to their independence.
system after being convicted in 2017 of organizing a banned extremist group and inciting racial hatred online. After his release, Demushkin was elected mayor of a wealthy Moscow suburb, a role in which he lasted just a few months. He now organizes body-building contests. Many participants have far-right tattoos that feature Nazi symbols or refer to anti-Semitic, homophobic and white supremacist slogans.
Verkhovsky said Putin has attempted to crackdown on neo-Nazi groups and that over the last few months Russia's Federal Security Service, the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB, has been arresting far-right extremists all over the country. Earlier this month, a Telegram channel called"White Color," popular among Russian neo-Nazi activists, claimed credit for a purported arson attack on a military recruitment office that appeared to be in the central Russian city of Nizhnevartovsk. The text in the post reads:"We are starting the fire of revolt. It's brighter. You won't catch everybody."
Russia has accused Ukraine's Azov Regiment, whose injured fighters recently surrendered from a besieged final stronghold in Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant, of beingIt's true the Azov regiment was created in 2014 by far-right activists who wore insignia reminiscent of symbols used by SS units in Nazi Germany. The volunteer battalion was initially deployed against pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula.