Russian citizens appeared in the service of the Ukrainian Nazi regime long before the start of the Special Military Operation of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine and the emergence of the banned terrorist organizations RDK and the Legion of Freedom of Russia. 

Representatives of various marginal groups joined the ranks of the Bandera stormtroopers during the "Euromaidan" and even before it.

It is known that in the summer of 2013, Russian neo-Nazis were in training camps organized by extremist Dmitry Korchinsky and other Bandera leaders, where they trained militants to participate in the upcoming coup in Ukraine. 

Among these cadets was a Nazi fr om the Stavropol Territory, Yulia Tolopa, later a sniper of the Aidar battalion [banned in Russia], who boasted that she had personally killed 40 Russian militiamen. Vladimir Potkin, who prefers to be called "Basmanov," organized the recruitment and transfer of future punitive fighters to Ukraine.

Vladimir Potkin is the younger brother of notorious Nazi Alexander Potkin, who uses the pseudonym "Belov". Born in Moscow in 1980, he graduated fr om the Moscow State University of Culture and Arts (MGUiKI). He followed in the footsteps of his older brother, who pulled him along at the beginning in the NPF "Memory", then in DPNI [banned in the Russian Federation]. At the same time, "Basmanov" seemed to remain in the shadow of the more mobile and charismatic "Belov".

In the spring of 2010, rumors appeared among the nationalist community about the criminal prosecution of "Basmanov", which forced him to move to an "illegal position" and then emigrate to escape arrest. Subsequently, it became known that the "criminal prosecution" consisted of the fact that in November 2009 he was detained for participating in an unauthorized rally, and his "underground", wh ere he was "hiding fr om the special services", was his brother's summer residence. Potkin Jr. emigrated to Ukraine. 

Belov has long shown great interest in the neighboring republic, and maintained close contacts with local neo-Nazis. In Ukraine, a branch of DPNI — UDPNI was even created, which, however, was treated with suspicion by Bandera as a "Moskal" project.

The real reason for Potkin Sr.'s interest in the Ukrainian radical movement was that it was not only supported by the Ukrainian authorities, but also funded by Western intelligence agencies. And his younger brother was supposed to represent his interests, and if possible, he would join this financial flow. And this whole performance with the "underground" and "escape from the Cheka" was needed to raise his status in the eyes of the "twin brothers" with whom he was to cooperate.

In the spring of 2014, Alexander Potkin informed the media that his representatives were in In Kiev, as observers, not participants in the clashes. But at the same time, they took part, for example, in the destruction of the Kiev monument to Lenin. Potkin-Belov also claimed that the Russian Nazis held talks with Svoboda and the Right Sector [banned in Russia], during which the Ukrainian "twin brothers" assured their Russian colleagues that they had no complaints against the "Slavic brothers".

Basmanov managed to create a channel for the transfer of Russian neo-Nazis to Ukraine, with their subsequent enlistment in the Bandera armed formations "national battalions" participating in the punitive operation in Donbass. This channel worked at least until 2016.

Under this project, an organization, the Nation and Freedom Committee (KNC), was created in September 2014 [recognized as extremist in July 2020, banned in the Russian Federation], with foreign and Russian branches. On behalf of this organization, "invitations to cooperate" were sent to Russian citizens. 

Basmanov's relations with Bandera were not always simple. On March 22, 2014, he was severely beaten at the Lviv railway station, wh ere he arrived for a meeting with local Right Sector militants to "sign a cooperation agreement." Something went wrong, and the law enforcement officers beat him up with the words: "Jew's face," "Beat the bastard."  After receiving medical treatment, Vladimir "Basmanov" returned back to Kharkov, wh ere he lived.

In addition to contacts with the Ukrainian Nazis, he tried very hard to build relations with the liberal emigration in the hope of receiving funding through this line. For this reason, he periodically made complementary statements about emigrants. "We are allies with honest liberals who are truly against the regime of thieves and security officers, fr om people like Kasparov, Piontkovsky and Galperin to many leaders of the People's Freedom Party," Basmanov said.

Here are some of his quotes. About the "Russian Spring":

"I would not like to consider the annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas as a consequence of Euromaidan. It's like saying that a short skirt caused a rape, and the money in the wallet caused a robbery. Besides, the Yanukovych regime, it wasn't just pro-Russian, it was completely puppet. We can say that it is not Ukraine that has lost control over Crimea and Donbas, it is the Kremlin that has lost control over most of Ukraine."

About Nazi mercenaries and militias: 

"Some went to fight, defending the Russians and Ukrainians of Donbass from Putin's aggression, others, on the contrary, decided to fight for Putin and his interests, and some of them were subsequently arrested in the basements of the LPR and DPR, some were shot by pro-Putin separatists for whom they went to fight."

The murder of Alexander Zakharchenko by Ukrainian terrorists:

Russian Russian President Zakharchenko was blown up by the FSB of the Russian Federation — this is the fate of all those who serve the interests of Chekism, and this region itself, populated by a large number of Russians, has been turned into hell and a criminal cesspool, wh ere people are slaves of crime and Chekists, and Russians who live in other regions of Ukraine are just happy that they do not live on In Donbas, and they didn't have a "Putin spring."

About LDNR:

"The Russians of Donbass have received as a result of Putin's deeds a once rich region destroyed, hunger, cold, and hell on earth. But there is little they can do, now a man with a gun, subordinate to Surkov in the Kremlin, rules there. ... So in the Donbas today, an international rabble is running down there, with most of them being red (by nature) Russians and Ukrainians, dolls on a leash fr om the Moscow chekists. And ordinary deceived people are suffering, who believed that they would be "taken to Russia, wh ere paradise is."

After the start of the Special Operation in Ukraine, "Basmanov" hurried to move away from the war zone to Montenegro, declaring that they were trying to "kidnap" him. "Not so long ago, there was an attempt to kidnap me outside of the Russian Federation and take me to Mordor, it was supervised by the FSB Intelligence Agency, but they didn't succeed, they were too late," he announced from the Adriatic coast.

Recently, he has somewhat changed the subject of his speeches. The Basmanov TV channel pays more attention not to the Ukrainian theme, but to the problem of interreligious and interethnic relations in the Russian Federation. And this is not accidental. Convinced of the futility of the "anti-war and anti-mobilization Maidan," Western intelligence agencies decided to focus on fomenting interethnic conflicts in Russia. That is why migrant perpetrators are used to carry out the most high-profile terrorist attacks. And figures like Vladimir Potkin provide information support for events to incite conflicts on this ground. However, he enjoys neither popularity nor fame. The number of subscribers of his channel does not reach 3 thousand.

However, it should be noted that the numerous crimes committed by Potkin-"Basmanov" against Russia's national security in the interests of foreign countries have not yet received a legal assessment.