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 [1]‘s regime. In Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia, it took some 20,000 police and military personnel to prevent yet another [2] “Dissenters’ March” from happening. In Moscow, however, 3,000 riot police were called to guard 15,000 pro-Kremlin Nashi [3] 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 [4] (RUS):
[…] I felt somewhat jealous of [Eduard Limonov [5]]. 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 [6], a Soviet Army General who cooperated with Nazi Germany during WWII] and [Mikhail Kasyanov [7], 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