Newsweek on Nashi, Mestnye Marches
Nashi’s actions during the “Bronze Soldier” fiasco has without a doubt increased its political statue in Russia. As a result Western media is beginning to take more notice. For example, take this week’s edition of Newsweek International where one of their main articles is a feature on Nashi titled “Putin’s Powerful Youth Guard.”
The article paints an ominous picture of Nashi where its members are “highly disciplined and lavishly sponsored” and “a bona fide private army fanatically loyal to one man, the president.” There are passing comparisons to the Komsomol and the Hitler Youth. To their credit, the article’s authors claim that the latter is an “overstatement” because while Nashi may be “fanatically loyal to Putin” they are really only a “sinister parody of democracy movements in Ukraine and elsewhere.” I assume that their “sinister parady of democracy” lies in Nashi’s ..read more
