March 19, 2024 (EIRNS)—On Sunday, March 17, as the historic three-day presidential election in Russia was wrapping up, with a record turnout of voters (over 77%), Ukraine’s head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (GUR) Kyrylo Budanov addressed his Forum of Russian Volunteers, in a bizarre display. They had lost men and equipment in their attempt to violently disrupt Russia’s polling places. Budanov explained to them by video hookup: “Whatever result the Russian Central Election Commission writes is fake, as the elections did not take place not only in the border regions. A vast number of polling stations will not have the opportunity to count the ballots due to Russian activists spoiling them, realizing the vileness of these ‘elections.’” This apparently refers to Budanov’s defense of democracy, with his GUR’s involvement in assaults upon polling stations, mainly by drones. He claimed that “such a large number of spoiled ballots and boxes have never been seen anywhere in the world.”
The accompanying photo that the Kyiv Post provided showed a glum group, with four of the six FRV listeners with heads bowed low around a table.
The FRV was founded in 2022 by the avowed neo-Nazi Denis Kapustin, aka Nikitin. A Russian living in Germany from 2001-18, he has gone from his start as a leader of Germany’s football hooligans, to a marketer of Nazi-themed clothing (the brand is “White Rex"), to fight clubs and mixed martial arts and the worship of physical violence. In 2018, he moved to Ukraine and worked with the infamous Azov Battalion (mainly its combination night club and fight club). His recent work with Budanov involves quick raids into the Russian border state of Belgorod to shoot at civilians.
