Burning books for Putin

Julian Evans talks to young nationalists in Russia and discovers that their clean and sober dedication is unnerving

Moscow

0 utside the British embassy in Moscow, a crowd of Russian boys is protesting, demanding the extradition of Akluned Zakayev, the

Chechen rebel living in exile in London. 'Shame! Shame!' they chant. One waves a placard that says 'Tony Blair, are you with us or the terrorists?' Most of the youths are wearing T-shirts printed with President Putin's smiling face.

The protest, earlier this month, was the latest action by an NGO called Idushie Vmeste, translated as 'Moving Together', but more popularly known as the Putin Youth. While most Russian teenagers get drunk, take ecstasy and try to get laid, the clean-cut members of the Putin Youth earnestly try to follow the maxim: 'Be better everywhere and in everything.'

Andrei, an 18-year-old member, says, 'We don't drink, smoke or take drugs, we're respectful to elders, and at the weekend, we restore churches.' The group is also, less officially, a devoted cult in support of President Putin and the strong leadership he has brought to Russia.

The group first sprung to life in 2000 after Putin's election as President. In 2001, after Plain's first year in office, some 10,000 smiling, chanting young people took to the streets to praise their beloved leader.

The organisation is supposed to be something like a cross between the Scouts and the old Communist youth organisation, Komsomol. One organiser, Vladimir, says, 'Our primary target is to help raise youth and instil moral fibre. We were set up as a reaction to moral uncertainty in society. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, young people didn't know right from wrong.'

The organisers insist that the group is not ideologically motivated. However, it has recently carried out more aggressively political actions. In 2002 it led a campaign against 'the rape of Russian literature by modern writers', which involved burning books by writers deemed immoral. The group built a giant lavatory in front of the Bolshoi theatre, down which its members flushed several copies of a book by the writer Vladimir Sorokin. The Youth claimed that the book was pornographic and disrespectful of Stalin and Krushchey.

This year the group has turned its sights on foreign countries and organisations. As well as the protest at the British embassy, the Putin Youth also demonstrated outside the offices of the BBC and Reuters in July, erecting giant placards that says 'Stop Lying'. The group says that foreign media, in their defence of the Russian freedom of the press, ignore the 'monstrous corruption' of the Russian media.

In the same month, the group also protested outside the Georgian embassy in Moscow, accusing the Georgian President, Mikhail Saakashvili, of being a CIA spy.

Some in Russia believe the group is a worrying sign of authoritarian tendencies among Russia's youth. Others claim the angry young moralists marching in support of their President are actually bribed to do so, and that the group is financed and managed by the Kremlin, a clumsy piece of PR in Putin's increasingly stagemanaged political regime. This seems to be the opinion of the British embassy regarding the recent demonstration in Moscow. 'It was real rent-a-mob stuff,' says one diplomat. 'One of them actually thought they were protesting in support of Britain,' Inside the group's small headquarters in Moscow, I meet the founders of Iclushie Vmeste, two brothers in their for ties called Boris and Vasily Jakamenko. Vasily says he previously worked in construction, while Boris was a professor of history.

The room is littered with placards and printed political slogans. In the corner is a gold lamp shaped like the head of Gennady Zyuganov, head of the Communist party. Throughout the interview, Boris does not look up once, but continues to type furiously on his laptop.

When I ask Vasily, an intense man with a grade two haircut, how the group finances itself, he picks up a Stanley knife on his desk and toys with it. 'We are financed by some private sponsors and by the members themselves. Some financing also comes from the federal budget.'

Does the organisation have any links with the Kremlin? 'Absolutely none.... It is true 1 once worked in the presidential administration, but at a very junior level. We are not a political organisation.'

Later 1 meet two more outspoken members of the organisation. Andrei and Sergei, both 18, are fresh-faced, smartly dressed students at the elite Moscow State University. I ask what motivated them to join the Putin Youth. Sergei shrugs: 'Free Internet access. We get six free hours a month.' Andrei adds: 'They also have a cinema at the headquarters, and a library.'

Both are from the regions and say the organisation is a good way to make new friends in Moscow. Sergei says, 'We go on trips to the country, paint orphanages, sing songs around camp fires. Also, there are classes every week, on things like social etiquette or the Egyptian pyramids.'

Andrei and Sergei say they have been involved in several political actions, marching in support of the President's first year in office, as well as protesting against a pop singer who swore on television. Andrei says, 'We absolutely support President Putin. He has made the country strong again,' Both of them stress the importance of a moral life for Russia's youth, though after 45 minutes they both sheepishly produce packets of cigarettes and start puffing away. With a smile Andrei says. 'To tell the truth, we tend not to go on the orphanage-painting trips,' 'They pay us to demonstrate,' says Sergei, eventually. 'The problem is they don't pay enough. If you're a team leader, you get a mobile phone, and if you're one of the most ardent supporters, you can win trips abroad.'

It is slightly ironic that, while President Putin attacks other NGOs in Russia for being financed and controlled by shadowy political and commercial forces, his administration seems happy to carry out similar tactics. 'Yes, the group is probably controlled by the Kremlin,' says Andrei. 'And sure, I don't like the idea of being manipulated for PR, but I genuinely support Putin.' He pauses. 'And I'm a student and I need the money.'