Archive – Paramilitaries of the Russian Volunteer Corps rebel group – -/Ukrinform/Dpa – Archive
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Authorities add theater director Evgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk to the list
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The Russian authorities have updated this Monday their list of terrorists and extremists, including the rebel group Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK), involved in several attempted incursions from Ukraine in recent weeks against Russian regions on the border.
This was stated by Russia's financial supervision agency, Rosfinmonitoring, in a statement. The Russian Government has already declared the RDK a terrorist organization in 2023, and banned its activities, according to the Russian news agency TASS.
The RDK, as well as the Russian Freedom Legion, has carried out several attempted incursions into Russian territory in recent weeks. The Russian Volunteer Corps reported in mid-March that it had increased its staff with former mercenaries from the Wagner Group.
The Russian Volunteer Corps was founded in August 2022 by Denis Kapustin, a former martial arts fighter linked to neo-Nazi groups. The RDK is made up primarily of far-right Russian fighters who oppose Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Although RDK and the Russian Freedom Legion have aired their points of disagreement, in May last year the former published a message on their social networks confirming that they had decided to “combine their efforts and participate in combat together.”
Russian authorities have also listed theater director Evgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk under Article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code for “justifying terrorism,” according to the agency.
The NGO Amnesty International (AI) reported last August that both have been detained since May 5, 2023 on charges of terrorism related to their work 'Finist Yasny Sokol', which tells the story of several women who traveled to Syria and They married members of the Islamic State.
The play is based on the real life of Varvara Karaulova, a Moscow University student who was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for trying to join the Islamic State after having “fallen in love” with a fighter.
