Maxim Sergeyevich Martsinkevich

A rather controversial post today...

Maxim Sergeyevich Martsinkevich (1984), better known as Tesak (Hatchet or Hand Axe), is a Russian neo-Nazi activist, media personality, vlogger, the leader and one of the founders of the Restruct movement that has existed on the territory of post-Soviet countries.

Tesak has first caught public attention as a white power skinhead and the leader of the far-right youth group Format 18, which has been described as the "armed wing" of the National Socialist Society.

Martsinkevich has received three prison sentences for inciting racial or ethnic hatred. In 2007, Tesak was indicted for the first time, after disrupting political debates by performing the Nazi salute and yelling "Sieg Heil!" at the Bilingua club in Moscow. In 2009, he was sentenced to three years for making a video with racist content. Martsinkevich's memories from this time in prison have been expressed through his book Restruct. After getting out of prison, Tesak has been unemployed, made vlogs and made a living by charging others for joining his "hunts for paedophiles" and for attending his lectures about life in prison, ways of shoplifting, as well as other subjects. In the autumn of 2013, Tesak was indicted again for releasing new videos featuring racist remarks. As the result, on 15 August 2014, he was sentenced to five years in prison.

On 27 June 2017, the Babushkinsky district court of Moscow sentenced Martsinkevich to ten years in a strict regimen corrective labor colony for his involvement in attacks targeting synthetic cannabinoids dealers.

Pictured here is Maxim on Cuba, before his arrest by Cuban police and his extradition to Russia.