Russian Official Overseeing the Deportation of Children From Ukraine Has Been Revealed to Be a Neo-Nazi

The right-hand of Russia's authorized child rights representative, Lvov-Belova, Alexei Petrov, who is responsible for "humanitarian programs" for Ukrainian children, has ties to neo-Nazi organizations.

This was reported by Reuters.

It is noted that the publication conducted its own investigation, reviewing old posts of the Russian official on the social network "VKontakte," which he published during the period from 2011 to 2014.

These posts contained videos of the neo-Nazi group WotanJugend, as well as an announcement of a festival with the same name. Additionally, Reuters identified that Petrov's usernames on Skype and Instagram are also linked to neo-Nazism. In Instagram, Petrov's name contains a coded reference to Adolf Hitler, widely used in far-right circles. And on Skype, the advisor to the Russian children's ombudsman's office chose the name "wotan_jugend8989," which is a direct reference to the organization of white race advocates, Wotanjugend.

Reuters attempted to ask Petrov several questions, but the official denied any connection to neo-Nazi organizations. Petrov also stated that he cannot recall what information he posted many years ago.

However, after discussions with journalists, Petrov deleted all posts flagged by the publication, as well as unsubscribed from 150 communities, including a group called "Stay White," dedicated to the "revival of Greater Russia."

According to the official website of Russia's authorized child rights representative, Alexei Petrov is the head of a "humanitarian aid" project for children from "new regions of Russia," which are actually occupied territories of Ukraine by Russia. Petrov also oversees the "Day After Tomorrow" program, which involves the transportation of Ukrainian children to camps for their "social-psychological rehabilitation," as well as introduction to the "education system, history, and culture of Russia."

Recall that in March of this year, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian authorized child rights representative Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of illegal deportation of children from occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia.

According to official data, Russia forcibly deported over 19,000 minors from Ukraine. Moreover, from the Russian war in Ukraine, 1,578 children suffered, of whom 498 died and 1,080 were wounded to varying degrees.

However, such figures cannot be considered definitive, as verifying crimes against children in conflict zones is extremely challenging.

WotanJugend is a neo-Nazi group founded in Russia in 2008. The organization's centers are widely represented not only on the territory of the Russian Federation but also worldwide, particularly in European countries.

It is worth adding that Russia regularly accuses European countries of supporting ultranationalist movements. In May 2022, a series of posters were placed in Moscow calling to "denazify" Sweden. The text on the posters claimed that prominent Swedes, such as the author Astrid Lindgren, supposedly supported Nazism.

Earlier, in 2017, the Swedish district court of Gothenburg convicted members of the Swedish neo-Nazi group Nordic Resistance Movement for organizing attacks in refugee shelters. The Swedish Security Service revealed that two of the convicted individuals, Viktor Melin and Anton Thulin, received military training in Russia before the crimes, specifically at the "Partisan" training center in St. Petersburg, which was coordinated by the far-right Russian organization "the Russian Imperial Movement."