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The Kremlin's "Love Oasis"
Facing a dwindling population crisis, Vladimir Putin has created a program eerily similar to the Hitler Youth movement:
Obediently, couples move to a special section of dormitory tents arranged in a heart-shape and called the Love Oasis, where [young Russian couples] can start procreating for the motherland.
With its relentlessly upbeat tone, bizarre ideas and tight control, it sounds like a weird indoctrination session for a phoney religious cult.
But this organisation - known as "Nashi", meaning "Ours" - is youth movement run by Vladimir Putin's Kremlin that has become a central part of Russian political life.
Nashi's annual camp, 200 miles outside Moscow, is attended by 10,000 uniformed youngsters and involves two weeks of lectures and physical fitness.
Complete with veiled racist overtones, the organization resembles the Sturmabteilung (SA) and its intimidation tactics before WWII:
The group's leaders insist that the only connection to officialdom is loyalty to the president. If so, they seem remarkably well-informed.
In July 2006, the British ambassador, Sir Anthony Brenton, infuriated the Kremlin by attending an opposition meeting. For months afterwards, he was noisily harassed by groups of Nashi supporters demanding that he "apologise". With uncanny accuracy, the hooligans knew his movements in advance - a sign of official tip-offs.
Even when Nashi flagrantly breaks the law, the authorities do not intervene. After Estonia enraged Russia by moving a Soviet era war memorial in April, Nashi led the blockade of Estonia's Moscow embassy. It daubed the building with graffiti, blasted it with Stalin era military music, ripped down the Estonian flag and attacked a visiting ambassador's car. The Moscow police, who normally stamp ruthlessly on public protest, stood by.
...
Yet, by comparison with other outfits, Nashi looks relatively civilised. Its racism and prejudice is implied, but not trumpeted. Other pro-Kremlin youth groups are hounding gays and foreigners off the streets of Moscow. Mestnye [The Locals] recently distributed leaflets urging Muscovites to boycott non-Russian cab drivers.
These showed a young blonde Russian refusing a ride from a swarthy, beetle-browed taxi driver, under the slogan: "We're not going the same way."
Such unofficial xenophobia matches the official stance. On April 1, a decree explicitly backed by Mr Putin banned foreigners from trading in Russia's retail markets. By some estimates, 12 [million] people are working illegally in Russia.
Put mildly, this movement toward fascism in Russia is troubling. It is also disturbing that this story is not making more headlines here in the States.
|7.31.07 @ 2:52PM|#
This sounds like an excellent idea! We should have our own version of this, so that both of my remaining supporters can enroll their kids.
|7.31.07 @ 2:54PM|#
Ex-KGB officer with ties to organized crime turns out to be a
power-hungry dictator when he gets into office. Wow, who couldn't
have seen that one coming?
Oh that's right...our president.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/06/20010618.html
|7.31.07 @ 2:58PM|#
At least the next Cold War will start 500 miles east of where
the last one did.
And we have Central Europe back.
Episiarch|7.31.07 @ 3:02PM|#
At least the next Cold War will start 500 miles east of
where the last one did.
Cold War? Considering the similarities to Nazi Germany, if one were
to speculate wildly, it would be more accurate to say "the next
World War will start 500 miles east".
I doubt that Putin is stupid enough to start a real war, but you
never know what will happen or who might replace/wrest power from
him.
ed|7.31.07 @ 3:05PM|#
It is also disturbing that this story is not making more
headlines here in the States.
What?! And interfere with The Endless Election Cycle and Lindsay
Lohan Deathwatch?
Are you insane, man?
|7.31.07 @ 3:16PM|#
"The Endless Election Cycle and Lindsay Lohan Deathwatch"
Hell, all I've seen on local news for the last week is THE MICHAEL
VICK STORY!!!!!
Slow news week, I guess.
CB
|7.31.07 @ 3:20PM|#
And yet it amazes me how anti-gun the rest of Europe is. How many times do they have to be attacked before they realize the Swiss had it right?
thoreau|7.31.07 @ 3:54PM|#
And yet it amazes me how anti-gun the rest of Europe is. How
many times do they have to be attacked before they realize the
Swiss had it right?
Rifles in homes won't do anything to stop the next attack from the
East.
Europe needs missile defense far more than we do.
Edward|7.31.07 @ 3:55PM|#
If it weren't for all the excitement over Ron Paul, this would probably be getting mopre coverage.
|7.31.07 @ 3:55PM|#
I have been worried about Russia after the USSR fell. Now things
are going pretty much the way I was afraid of. Meanwhile,the media
has pretty much focused on the latest stupid celebrity tricks. Ah,
bread and circuses.
Here, where I live, the last afternoon local radio news show
changed formats, from news and talk to ..... espn sports
radio.
I love sports, but it is entertainment, like a movie or a concert,
not something that really matters, like our leaders and their
hijinks.
|7.31.07 @ 4:06PM|#
Don't be so sure that the American people would react negatively to this news. There are a few significant segments of the population who would be hunky-dory if we adopted a program like this here.
SPD|7.31.07 @ 4:11PM|#
Fascism, communism, tom-ay-to, tom-ah-to. They're all
totalitarians on the inside.
Um, has anyone seen the Religious Right lately?
|7.31.07 @ 4:13PM|#
If it weren't for all the excitement over Ron Paul, this
would probably be getting mopre coverage.
*cocks head* Rrrrrr?
|7.31.07 @ 4:14PM|#
There are a few significant segments of the population who
would be hunky-dory if we adopted a program like this
here.
Yeah, we have to outbreed the Messican menace. Come over to my
place and do your racial duty, cracker babes.
|7.31.07 @ 4:17PM|#
There are some pretty good arguments for allowing private gun
ownership.
Fighting off the Russian military is not among them.
Kohlrabi|7.31.07 @ 4:18PM|#
"Um, has anyone seen the Religious Right lately?"
*sigh*
No, SPD, we were talking about the Love Oasis, but I was getting
bored by such ubiquitous boilerplate. Please, tell me something
about the religious right!
|7.31.07 @ 4:43PM|#
And once again, joe shows his true colors. He obviously has
never seen the great libertarian flick Red Dawn.
He was probably watching some sort of leftist propaganda like
Stand and Deliver while that was out.
|7.31.07 @ 4:49PM|#
Rifles in homes won't do anything to stop the next attack
from the East.
Perhaps not, but it would offer a large deterrent. Wars aren't won
with missles and planes anymore, it's with small arms and guerilla
fighting. Putin knows this all too well with a small territory like
Chechnya. Imagine if every eastern european country had an armed
population.
|7.31.07 @ 5:02PM|#
Reason.com is parroting anti-Russian propaganda from a British
tabloid? What's next, will you quote the Weekly World News articles
that state that Putin is the AntiChrist?
I don't expect much of your site, you are Libertarian demagogues
after all, but the very least you can do is avoid reposting
propaganda for the British government. Please remember that Russia
and the UK are having a little crisis right now, so articles saying
"RUSSIA = HITLER!!!1" are bound to appear in less scrupulous
British media outlets.
What amuses me most is they manage to compare Russia not only to
Nazi Germany (ignoring the millions of Russians who gave their
lives fighting fascism) but also to Animal Farm. I suppose
they couldn't compare Russia to Nineteen Eighty-Four,
since that's what the UK resembles these days.
|7.31.07 @ 5:10PM|#
There are some pretty good arguments for allowing private gun ownership.
Fighting off the Russian military is not among them.
joe,
Fighting off the Russian army is not a good arguement for private
gun ownership if you live in the United States.
If you live in the Ukraine, or Georgia, it makes a lot more
sense.
Oh, and Red Dawn was B movie allegory for the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan. Certainly private gun ownership was extremly effective
against the Russian military there.
Platonist|7.31.07 @ 5:25PM|#
Rex Rhino:
If private gun ownership was extremely effective against
the Russian military in Afghanistan, why did the United States and
Iran bother providing military aid to the Islamists? Couldn't they
have handled them on their own with their AK-47s? Why did it take
10 years to drive them out?
Also, how do you feel about Canada arming their citizens with
machine guns and RPG-7s, to be used after the inevitable American
invasion? Good idea?
RE: Warty
I'm sure you'd think that 2+2=5, if the market decided it was so.
Communists worship the state, Libertarians worship the market, both
wish to make people slaves to the object of their worship.
|7.31.07 @ 5:32PM|#
Shouldn't Russia and England make an alliance so they can carve
up Germany and force France to stay in the Med?
They really shouldn't turn on each other until they have about 15
production centers.
|7.31.07 @ 5:41PM|#
Also, how do you feel about Canada arming their citizens with machine guns and RPG-7s, to be used after the inevitable American invasion? Good idea?
I think it is a fantastic idea. Definitly a good idea!
fyodor|7.31.07 @ 5:43PM|#
There are some pretty good arguments for allowing private
gun ownership.
Fighting off the Russian military is not among them.
How about for fighting off a Russian occupation?
Sound like something else that's going on in the world right now?
Like maybe two things? One starts with I and the other with
A....
|7.31.07 @ 5:48PM|#
Libertarians worship the market, [and] wish to make people
slaves to the object of their worship.
I'm sure this is supposed to mean something, but I can't fathom
what. Very poetic, though.
|7.31.07 @ 5:55PM|#
Russia never changes, Czar, commies or whatever Putin is; it is always run by a dictator, it always wants to dominate the near-abroad, it always desires control of a warm-water port and it always fears the peril from the east. Why any developments in Putin's Russian surprise us is a bafflement.
|7.31.07 @ 6:25PM|#
joe | July 31, 2007, 4:17pm | #
There are some pretty good arguments for allowing private gun
ownership.
Fighting off the Russian military is not among them.
As fyodor and others have pointed out, our small arms won't beat
back Soviet/Russian tanks, but will be good against their supply
lines, commandeered civilian infrastructure, etc.
I'm sure as a KGB man, Putin knows what the Soviet Partisans did in
WWII:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_partisans
As for the Russian "youth movements," they ain't shit/as good as
the Nazis untill they got a Horst-Wessel Lied...when they do, grab
your guns Amuhrica, the Russkies are comin!!!!!!
|7.31.07 @ 7:04PM|#
And once again, joe shows his true colors. He obviously has
never seen the great libertarian flick Red Dawn.
Oh, that's right. Best Documentary Oscar in 83, right? ;-)
|7.31.07 @ 7:16PM|#
The Iraq, Afghanistan and anti-Nazi partisan analogies are
inapt. The idea of the Russians attempting to occupy and govern
European countries is farcical at this point. Its neighbors to the
east are NATO members! If they were to try to take over half of
Poland or Belgium, they'd be driven out by the US and allied
militaries, not romantic guerilla-chic European partisans.
In a confrontation between a belligerent Russia and European
countries, Russian action would take the form of raids, military
strikes, and main-force actions against a big army attacking from
the west. Citizens with rifles wouldn't matter in the least in any
plausible scenario.
Maybe the Ukraine example is valid.
|7.31.07 @ 9:15PM|#
Why any developments in Putin's Russian surprise us is a
bafflement.
I'm baffled that people think the developments, broadly speaking,
are bad. Are you nostalgic for Brezhnev or something? Do you miss
the shoe-pounding-on-podium guy? By Russian standards, Putin is a
frickin SAINT.
|7.31.07 @ 9:32PM|#
joe: It only seems absurd now. Russia doesn't need to fight all
of NATO. Putin only needs to make a military large enough that the
western powers won't want to get involved. There were several
opportunities during the cold war to liberate a couple of the
eastern countries but none wanted to risk a war.
The guns aren't meant to be a main attack weapon. They are meant to
be an occupation weapon, long after the army has been destroyed.
They're hard to root out completely and can create a high cost for
occupation from constant harassment. You don't need to defeat the
military, you just need to create a high enough cost (either body
counts or money) for them not want to stay.
|8.1.07 @ 1:42AM|#
joe says: Rifles in homes won't do anything to stop the next
attack from the East.
You mean the way rifles in Iraqi homes haven't done anything at all
to bedevil the sole military superpower in the world? Does the
liberal Democratic version of the Second Amendment excise the part
noting that an efficient and well-armed (aka "well-regulated")
militia is necessary for a free state?
|8.1.07 @ 10:36AM|#
jh,
How about you read the answer I already gave to that point, about
six and a half hours before you raised it?
But hey, gotta love the description of the situation in Iraq as a
"free state."
DannyK|8.1.07 @ 3:49PM|#
Hey, nice transition to a gun control argument! Those are always
some calm and productive, after all.
How do you say "Second Amendment" in Ukrainian, by the way?
|8.1.07 @ 5:25PM|#
Why did Nazi Germany invade its neighbors? Lebensraum. Does this
scenario make sense for the Russians? Not really.
The Russians that don't move out of their country may be xenophobic
as hell, but they stand far more to gain extorting money from
Europe through high oil and natural gas prices than they do from
invading the territories that they no longer occupy. The whole
Nashi thing is kind of freaky, and most of them are a bunch of
misguided tools at best and assholes at worst. But fears of an
expansionist Fascist Russia are, it seems to this observer, a bit
hyperbolic at this point.
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