Reuters: Aide to Russia’s children’s rights commissioner has links to online neo-Nazi groups

A Reuters investigation has discovered that Alexei Petrov, who is currently an aide to Russian Presidential Commissioner on the Rights of Children Maria Lvova-Belova, was associated with online neo-Nazi and white supremacist movements.

Between 2011 and 2014, Petrov, who was then between 16 and 19 years old, posted material from white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and far-right groups on his own social media accounts. He also used handles on Skype and Instagram that referenced white supremacist organizations and Adolf Hitler. Petrov reportedly deleted some of his posts and took down links to his accounts only after Reuters contacted him in late July of this year.

According to the Reuters report, Petrov’s Skype handle, which is still functional, references the name of a white supremacist organization, Wotanjugend. His Instagram account, which has recently been disabled, used the handle fanat1k8814. “The numbers 88 are commonly used by neo-Nazis because ‘H’ — for ‘Heil’ and ‘Hitler’ — is the eighth letter in the alphabet,” writes Reuters. The number 14 references the slogan “the Fourteen Words,” coined by U.S. white separatist David Lane. It “relates to protecting the purity of the white race,” says Reuters

Alexei Petrov is an aide to Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights. In March, the International Criminal Court issued warrants for the arrest of Lvova-Belova and Vladimir Putin for the war crime of forcibly removing children from Ukraine. Lvova-Belova has reportedly facilitated the separation of Ukrainian children from their families and put them up for adoption in Russia. She has said she is protecting them from the “virus of Nazism” among Ukraine’s leadership.