Nashi (youth Movement) - Events and Incidents

Events and Incidents

On June 26, 2005, with media present, President Vladimir Putin met with a group of Nashi members at his residence in Zavidovo, Tver Oblast. He expressed his support for the group, described as "awestruck" by his presence.

In August 2005 Putin officially invited Yulia Gorodnicheva (b. December 16, 1985), an undergraduate student of Tula State University, one of the members of Nashi he had invited to the Zavidovo meeting, to become a member of the Public Chamber of Russia, but she refused to be selected by the President and on November 15, 2005, entered the second part of the chamber as a representative of Nashi. There she became a member of the Commission on Social Development.

In 2006 members of Nashi conducted a campaign against the British ambassador in Moscow, Tony Brenton, as he attended an opposition conference called Another Russia on July 11–12. He attended along with Putin opposition leaders such as Eduard Limonov, leader of the National Bolsheviks. Unnamed British officials were reported to suspect that this campaign had been co-ordinated by elements within the Russian government as a punishment for the speech given by the ambassador.

In April and May 2007, Nashi members held daily protests in front of the Estonian embassy in Moscow in protest of the moving of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn to a military cemetery. When movement members protested outside the Embassy of Estonia in Moscow in April 2007, some members were carrying signs stating "Wanted. The Ambassador of the Fascist State of eSStonia" (Russian: «Разыскивается посол фашистского государства эSSтония»), in reference to then-Ambassador of Estonia to Russia Marina Kaljurand. Nashi also evoked eSStonia when they accused the Estonian state of cultivating fascism, by removing the Bronze Soldier memorial, the unsolved murder of Dmitry Ganin on Bronze Night, the arrest and detention of Mark Siryk by the Kaitsepolitseiamet on Bronze Night, and the Monument of Lihula to the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian) being built. In early 2008 Estonia placed some Nashi members on a European Union-wide immigration blacklist, leading Nashi to accuse the European Union of violating democratic principles that European officials often accuse Russia of violating.

On 24 July 2007, Putin met with several Russian political and environmental youth organisations, including Nashi, at his residence in Zavidovo, and discussed various issues affecting Russian society. At the meeting, he stated that the United Kingdom was acting like a colonial power with a mindset stuck in the 19th or 20th centuries, due to their belief that Russia could change its constitution, allowing Andrey Lugovoy to be extradited to the UK to face charges in relation to the Alexander Litvinenko affair. He also stated, "They say we should change our Constitution – advice that I view as insulting for our country and our people. They need to change their thinking and not tell us to change our Constitution."

In December 2007 the movement was reported to be planning to send a select group of activists to study at British universities, arguably despite its disdain for Britain and its harassment of the British ambassador in Moscow. They said: "We lag behind in knowledge and experience vital for making Russia a 21st-century world leader. British education is rated highly all over the world. The graduates of British universities are in great demand. This is because of the high quality of education and also control from the government."

In March 2009 it was reported that a commisar in Nashi and some associates claimed they had launched a DDOS attack on Estonia in May 2007. The attacks came after Estonia removed a World War II-era Soviet memorial from its capital, provoking protests from Moscow.

On March 23, 2009, a small group of Nashi activists together with the activists of the Finnish Anti-Fascist Committee and Night Watch held a protest in Helsinki, Finland, arranged by Johan Bäckman. They denounced the publication of a new book about the Soviet occupation of Estonia by Sofi Oksanen and Imbi Paju and related seminar and saw the indictment of the occupation as an attack on Russia. Finnish historian and Russia-expert Arto Luukkanen considered the protest as an attempt by a marginal group to get publicity. Oksanen suggested that "Their message is aimed at Russians and the Russian media".

On January 18, 2010 activists of Nashi held a rally near the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow and "congratulated" Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko with his defeat in the first round of the presidential election the day before.

On July 30, 2010, Ella Pamfilova (Medvedev's human right's advisor) had to resign over comments she made, saying that Nashi activists had "pawned their souls to the devil" and that she "feared they might to come to power one day", causing Nashi to sue for libel. The Russian opposition commented, claiming that Nashi assaulted and intimidated its leaders.

In December 2011 it was reported that members of Nashi staged large pro-Kremlin demonstrations in response to anti-Putin demonstrations that followed the 2011 legislative election.