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
3 comments
Hi all
I just discovered your website by chance. It’s really useful and I just recommend it to my students.
Have a nice day.
Annals of Russian Hypocrisy…
We recently reported on the Russian government’s outrageous suppression of political dissent, as evidenced most recently in Nizhny Novgorod. As we mentioned, the other side of the story, as we’ve also mentioned, is the use of Kremlin authority to bol…
I happened to be walking around Moscow on Sunday, enjoying a sunny day and the sight of Nashi in their identical white coats, talking to passers-by, asking questions, smiling… I was approached by one and asked to choose the future face of Russian president: well since I am from Kazakhstan, our countries have a long way to go together, so I might as well have a say in Russia’s future. The choice was interesting: from Peter to Ekaterina, then to Lenin, Stalin, Gorbachev and finally, Putin. As I didn’t click Putin, the conversation with me was over. Others were lucky enough to send the president a personal text message. TV report that day showed Nashi member, saying that their goal is to keep Russia’s resources to Russia. I admired their enthusiasm, till someone told me they are getting paid.