Nashi Back on the Streets of Moscow

In March 2005, Vasily Yakemenko, a young Russian politician with a flair for organization, announced the formation of a new pro-Putin movement, Youth Democratic Anti-Fascist Movement "Nashi", or "Ours!"  In 2004, Russia was shaken by the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine. Aware of the democratizing influence of civil society, and the support given to the process by youth movements, the Kremlin seemed to want to ensure the loyalty of its own youth, and to deny the democratic opposition the ability to harness their energy and support. Approximately $250 million was spent on the Nashi project during its first year of existence, although Yakemenko denied that this was state money, claiming that the organisation was funded by businessmen keen to win the approval of the Kremlin. Yakemenko had previously led the pro-Putin Walking together, a forerunner of Nashi, which fell apart following financial disputes, and a scandal involving dissemination of pornographic video cassettes by one of its senior figures. This was particularly ironic, as Walking Together used the sobriquet "pornographic" against its enemies in much the same way that Nashi describes everybody it disagrees with as "fascist". The senior patron of the movement was Vladislav Surkov, later to rise to prominence in the Medvedev administration. Nashi was very quickly deployed to harass voices of opposition.
During the latter part of 2006, Sir Anthony Brenton, the British ambassador to Moscow, was subject to a six month campaign of intimidation by Nashi following a speech in July of that year on the subject of democracy to opponents of President Putin. Sir Anthony described the campaign against him as "psychological harassment bordering on violence", and complained that it also affected his wife and children. The fact that Nashi had acquired a copy of the Ambassador's diary, and was able to shadow his every move, suggested a possible FSB involvement in the operation. “Nashi’s links with the Kremlin are well enough known,” said Sir Anthony. “Their leader has met with President Putin many times and one of his advisers was known to have been involved in its creation... Even if one were to accept that they are not directly controlled by the Kremlin, this level of influence suggests that the Kremlin could stop them if it wanted to.” Although Russia is a signatory to the Vienna Protocols, which require host countries to ensure the safety of diplomats, the government initially insisted that Nashi’s actions were “not illegal”. Even when they later agreed to act, Nashi’s campaign continued. Sir Anthony's speech, which highlighted the erosion of civil liberties in Russia, was known to have infuriated Putin.
 
In April 2007, Russia had a dispute with Estonia over the removal of a Red Army memorial, and the graves of fourteen soldiers to a cemetery in Tallinn. Estonians found the memorial an uncomfortable reminder of the Russian occupation and the repressions their people suffered during the Soviet era. Russia was opposed to the move, and the leader of the Russian Senate, Sergei Mironov, called for a resolution to cut all ties with Estonia.
In Moscow, Nashi struck out at the Estonian embassy. During April and May 2007, the Estonian ambassador to Moscow and several staff were so intimidated by Nashi that they fled the country. In the Russian-inspired riots in Estonia itself, one young man, a Russian national, was killed, and scores injured. Approximately a quarter of Estonia's population is of ethnic Russian origin, and some 50,000 Russian soldiers are believed to be buried in Estonian soil. In March 2009, a Nashi member, Konstantin Goloskokov, told the Financial Times that the group was behind a "cyber attack" on Estonia that caused that country's IT infrastructure to crash. Although any official involvement was always denied, Sergei Markov, a parliamentarian and Mr Goloskokov's boss, volunteered the information that one of his assistants had planned and implemented the attack at a conference earlier the same month. The significance of the incident is that this attack was on a NATO member state on Russia’s border. Estonia is particularly vulnerable to such an attack, as much of its government is "paperless", and services are run online. Foreign and defence ministries were targeted, as were banks and newspapers. NATO has subsequently established a cyber defence facility in Estonia, funded and staffed by Germany, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy and Spain.
Although Nashi is believed to be in decline and possibly to have outlived its original purpose, as recently as July 2008 the organisation held a summer camp on Lake Seliger between Moscow and St Petersburg. Some 5,000 young Russians were in attendance, and Igor Shuvalov, appointed to the office of First Deputy Prime Minister in May 2008, lectured activists on the subject of economics, clearly confirming official government sanction for both the group and for the event. Amongst the "patriotic events" were a number of weddings, with newlyweds encouraged to procreate in order to raise the birthrate a la Soviet and Nazi eras. The Nashi website even has as its address www.nashi.su, the ".su" referring to the Soviet Union, harking back to an era looked upon nostalgically by the group's members.
Total devotion to Putin was always a pre-requisite for Nashi members, who numbered 120,000 at its height, and who attended training camps which bore a chilling resemblance to the Hitler Youth movement. When Russia celebrated its Independence Day on June 12th 2007, Nashi was the only youth organisation allowed onto Red Square. In December 2007, the Daily Telegraph reported that Nashi was funding a number of its members to travel to Britain in order to study. The rise in politically motivated violence from the far-right has nbeen a major cause for concern in Russia in recent years. Russia Today speculated (Sept 5, 2009) that Moscow has its own version of the Black Panthers, the militant black supremacy group active in the US in the 1960s. In that month a young Muscovite, awaiting trial for a knife attack on two students on the metro was shot dead an hour before his trial was set to begin.In the same month, a gang of skinheads on trial included a seventeen year old girl accused of murdering an immigrant. A sixteen year old neo-nazi was arrested as he attempted to place a bomb near a war memorial, and was linked with other bomb and arson attacks. Four months earlier, in May nationalist leader Aleksandr “Belov” Potkin was sentenced to one and a half year’s imprisonment for inciting ethnic hatred and violence. In summer 2008, a pact was made to form a coalition of far-right groups. At the time, Potkin (who styles himself as “Belov” – the name derives from the Russian word for “white) stated that Russia must “be nationalistic or it will cease to exist”.
 
Now Nashi is back on the streets of Moscow. The group has staged a picket of the US Embassy in Moscow after American officials criticised the arrest and imprisonment of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov. Nemtsov was sentenced to 15 days in jail for “disobeying police” at a sanctioned rally on New Years Eve.

Washington condemned the decision, with senators describing it as “shameful and outrageous”, and two weeks later Nashi activists handed over letters of protest to Republican John McCain and independent Joe Lieberman, RIA Novosti reported.
 
During his campaign for the office of mayor of Sochi, Nemtsov was attacked in the street and had ammonia thrown into his eyes. Nashi was blamed for the attack at the time.