Bigotry Monitor: Volume 7, Number 29
We are people of the same blood," President Vladimir Putin told over video link on July 28, bringing cheers from his audience of some 10,000 activists of the Kremlin-backed youth movement Nashi (�Ours�) assembled in a summer camp in the Tver Region. Though the reference to blood, rather than shared culture and language, has become increasingly common in Russian society and especially in neo-Nazi rhetoric, top state officials are not known to have publicly used the term that is reminiscent of Nazi propaganda. Perhaps reflecting uneasiness with the reference, state-controlled Rossiya TV highlighted another, more conventional quote from the same paragraph of Putin�s address: �You and I are part of the same team.� Rossiya�s report featured activists marching in combat gear and apparently learning to load some kind of gun and practicing combat techniques.
According to Nashi�s own count, the youth movement �unites more than 100,000 people from 50 Russian regions.� Western press reports from the summer camp expressed apprehensions about the militarism of the participants and the demonization of Putin�s opposition.
In his remarks to foreign journalists in Moscow on July 27, First Deputy Prime Minister and likely presidential candidate Dmitriy Medvedev played down the radicalism in Nashi noted by other observers. The remarks singled out by Itar-Tass stressed that society should not be afraid of Nashi. Commenting on the negative attitude of some Nashi members to some foreign countries he did not name (but, clearly, the reference was to the United States and Britain) Medvedev emphasized that countries with which Russia has friendly relations should not be demonized. At the same time, Medvedev noted that the young people have the right to express their attitudes to countries whose views they dislike. "But it doesn't mean that [Nashi�s] work is leading to the emergence of some new state ideology,� he added. �Ideology is a harmful thing.�
According to Itar-Tass, Medvedev �also stressed the need to prevent outbursts of xenophobia and racial intolerance.� "This is disgusting as it is, and even worse in this area [of trade] and the Russian state must watch over this," he said. "This is a new worry for us because 20 years ago nobody could have imagined this, and now we are facing this problem. The state's task is to respond toughly and create correct practices so that such cases are correctly identified, not turned into cases of common hooliganism, and are properly assessed from the legal point of view. And those involved should be brought to justice.�
Apparently conscious of his audience, Medvedev revealed: "I for one, ever since my student days, have always greatly respected what is known as Britain's unwritten constitution, including its Magna Carta.� As for the Russian constitution, Medvedev went on to say, even though it is not as old as Britain�s and can be legally flawed, it nevertheless is the Russian state's main law in force. "So it can be quite hurtful to hear comments such as 'you have a problem, so change your constitution to be like all the other civilized nations,�� Medvedev said, referring to the British request to extradite suspected murderer Andrei Lugovoy. Such comments will complicate mutual relations, he warned.
http://www.fsumonitor.com/stories/080307BM.shtm
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