Russia: User Guide · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

This has been an eventful weekend, rally-wise.
In Minsk, Belarus, water cannons had to be used against several thousand citizens opposed to Aleksandr Lukashenko‘s regime. In Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia, it took some 20,000 police and military personnel to prevent yet another “Dissenters’ March” from happening. In Moscow, however, 3,000 riot police were called to guard 15,000 pro-Kremlin Nashi members during their celebration of Vladimir Putin's seventh year as Russia's president.
Gallery owner Marat Guelman (LJ user galerist) got hold of Nashi booklet – and here's what he thinks of it (RUS):
[…] I felt somewhat jealous of [Eduard Limonov]. To have such determined propagandists [as Nashi are] costs a lot.
In general, Nashi can be considered the founders of a new genre. The booklet resembles a brief user guide. For an extremely simple device (something like a hammer). Just a few words, but repeated on every page:
fascists: hitler and limonov
traitors: [Andrei Vlasov, a Soviet Army General who cooperated with Nazi Germany during WWII] and [Mikhail Kasyanov, Russia's PM from 2000 to 2004, who is currently Garry Kasparov's close ally]
enemies: america and the liberals
victims: saddam hussein and the russian people
friends: Putin and Putin tomorrow