New political force in Russia: youths
Emerging youth groups protest Putin's 'managed democracy,' spurring pro-Kremlin groups to respond.
By Scott Peterson, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
MOSCOW -
The idea couldn't have been simpler: to chart online the scale of
antigovernment protests erupting across Russia, marking each city where
pensioners rallied against welfare reform with a fire.
The resulting website - which gets 1,500
hits a day, including many from the FSB, the successor to the KGB - is
proving a catalyst for Russian youths disenchanted with the politics of
President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites).
"They can close us, but we can host
somewhere else, like in the US. The Internet is still a free zone,"
says Alexander Korsunov, creator of the site skaji.net, or Say No. "We
can use this site to join everyone online. The main thing is to get
everyone offline, and onto the streets."
Springing from the unprecedented
pensioner protests last January, several new anti-Putin youth groups
have emerged or are gathering steam, casting themselves as harbingers
of opposition before Russia's 2008 presidential election.
The protests helped push Mr. Putin's
longstanding approval ratings of nearly 80 percent last year down to 42
percent, according to some polls. But as the elderly try to safeguard
their retirement, the new youth groups are battling to redefine the
meaning of patriotism in a political environment where the Kremlin has
equated devotion to Putin with love of Russia.
The emergence of groups like Moving
Without Putin and Yabloko Youth - with sites like Mr. Korsunov's
providing connections across Russia - has prompted Moving Together, the
main pro-Putin group, to respond.
Nashi, or "Ours," is an offshoot that
promises to be more militant, more nationalistic - and more alert to
protecting youths from "fascists." Dozens of Moving Together activists
were on the streets of Moscow Monday, picketing what they called
"pornography" in a modern opera at the Bolshoi Theater. The newspaper
Isvestiya pointed out that none of the protesters had read the
libretto, by Vladimir Sorokin.
"The role of youths in future elections
will be maximum," says Vasily Yakemenko, a former Kremlin bureaucrat
who leads both pro-Kremlin groups. "I don't think there exists any
other political force in Russia that will be more important."
Mr. Yakemenko says all activities of
Nashi focus on patriotism and anti- fascism. The "several threats that
our organization must struggle against," he says, are oligarchs,
bureaucracy, and fascist "enemies" that include a "counter-revolution
of former officials trying to seize power."
He dismisses the anti-Putin youth groups
as "traitors" trying to get foreign money, says their "ideology is just
zero," and notes that there are "many ways to struggle against them."
In this duel for young people, both sides
present themselves as patriots. But the examples of student movements
from Serbia to Georgia to Ukraine, which have led successful, regime-
toppling revolutions, is never far away.
"The new situation is a battle for young
minds - the presidential administration understands this, that's why
they created Nashi," says Korsunov, a towering student of political
science at Moscow's Higher School of Economics, who wears a diamond
stud in his left ear. "They know something is going on."
So far, his website has steered away from
direct criticism of Putin, and instead focused on the incompetent
handling of the welfare issue - a point the president himself has made.
Beyond that, opposition student leaders
say they want to limit what the Kremlin calls "managed democracy." The
Internet is a way to spread the word, at a time when virtually all
national broadcast media are government-controlled.
"We live in an information society, [but]
now I know that we live in this information vacuum," says Korsunov,
whose map is dotted with protest fires that point to a "big problem."
"If you don't have information, you make the wrong choices. I don't go
into ideology on the website, because I believe people are not stupid.
There are a lot of kitchen talks, as in Soviet times, about [Putin's]
'vertical power.' "
The answer will be on the streets, says Ilya Yashin, head of the youth groups of the liberal Yabloko party.
"The fight for the presidential election
in 2008 has already started ... and social groups like the youth
movement will take a serious part," says Mr. Yashin, who two weeks ago
was caught trying to listen in on a meeting of Nashi. He was forcibly
removed and dumped in the snow. "The Kremlin is really scared about
Ukraine and Georgia," he says.
Before being ejected from the meeting,
Yashin says he saw about 200 activists: True believers who "understood
what happens, and know why they are there"; newcomers keen on "free
billiards and food"; and "fighters in sports clothes and with short
hair" - who kicked him out.
With the main organs of power under
Kremlin control, "you have to go to the streets," says Yashin.
"Everybody understands that whoever controls the streets in 2008 has a
good chance to win. And the Kremlin will try to control the streets -
that's why groups like Moving Together and Nashi were formed."
Moving Together discredited itself by
going after popular writers, paying supporters to attend meetings and
rallies, and handing out free Internet and discount cards, says
Korsunov.
"The only thing they don't do is pray for
Putin. They wanted to do everything like [Soviet-era] Komsomol, but
this is a different age," adds Korsunov. And while pro-Putin youths
have been effective at motivating supporters with patriotism, they
don't corner the market.
"I'm a patriot. I want Russia to be
independent and democratic. All that talk that Russians don't respect
democratic values is [wrong]," he says. "Putin and Russia are not the
same thing, and people are beginning to realize that."
To help them along, he created a "public
movement" in January, at the same time he launched skaji.net, called
People Who Know. "In Russia there is total control over information,"
the manifesto states. "We want to know. Information is our weapon. We
will speak!"
|
News Alerts
