A Russian journalist masking Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine for state media has mentioned that he “doesn’t remorse” his time in a far-right group after being pictured with Nazi tattoos.
Gleb Erve presently covers the battle — which the Kremlin claims was launched to “denazify Ukraine” — for the state-run RIA Novosti information company.
Ukrainian information outlet Kyivskaya Pravda published pictures displaying fascist and nazist symbols tattooed on Erve’s head and arm. They’re the symbol of the Italian Nationwide Fascist Social gathering tattooed on the again of his head and the Algiz, or Life rune, extensively used in Nazi Germany, on his hand.
Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Erve didn’t deny having the tattoos however said he left the far-right three years in the past after feeling “disappointed” within the motion.
“Do I remorse this story? No. Just because it was an expertise, a really uncommon one,” Erve said in an interview with the state-run information outlet Sputnik.
He additionally claimed that his background helped him interview captives from Ukraine’s Azov Battalion — a bunch with far-right roots that has since been included into the Ukrainian navy — and seek for “nationalist” literature in Ukraine.
Earlier than becoming a member of RIA Novosti, Erve labored at a Moscow tattoo salon alongside Andrei Dedov, an ally of Russian Nazi activist Maxim “Tesak” Martsinkevich, Novaya Gazeta Europe later reported.
Martsinkevich has been charged twice with inciting ethnic or racial hatred, whereas unconfirmed stories have linked Dedov to a number of homicide instances.