Is It Cold in Here?

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MsNomer
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Is It Cold in Here?

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From the Boston Globe Article found here---> http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editor ... ts/?page=1
Putin's young 'brownshirts'

By Cathy Young | August 10, 2007
"And make no mistake: While ostensibly independent, Nashi is a Kremlin creation. Officially, its lavish funding comes from pro-government business owners; it is widely reported that the group also receives direct subsidies from the Kremlin. Nashi activists land coveted jobs and internships in government agencies as well as state-owned oil and gas corporations. Putin's top advisers have met frequently with the group's leaders.

Last July, its two-week training program in a camp 200 miles outside Moscow, attended by 10,000 young men and women carefully screened for ideological fitness, was capped by a video message from Putin in which the president proclaimed Nashi a part of his team. Several days earlier, he had met with a group of Nashi "commissars" at his summer residence in Zavidovo.

Nashi claims to be over 100,000 strong; according to some reports, it has a core of 10,000 activists ages 17 to 25, with another 200,000 or so who regularly attend its events.

At the core of Nashi's credo is personal loyalty to Putin, admired as the strongman who saved Russia from weakness and decline -- and venomous hate toward the opposition and its leaders, such as chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. (Posters at the Nashi summer camp depicted Kasparov and two other male opposition figures as lingerie-clad prostitutes.)"
I see parallels between this and historical movements as the author so kindly pointed out, but I am more concerned about the similarity I see between this and the Christian Youth movement in the United States. I think it is unwise to ignore zealotry where ever it exists.

A polarization of the youth in Russian set against the polarization of youth occurring here can't be good for the future.
How IS a Raven like a writing desk? [/b]
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