"Young people identify themselves with Putin and the regime, and they don't want any changes," said Boris Dubin, senior researcher at the Levada Polling Center. "They support the interpretation of stability imposed on society by the mass media. They are shaped by the Kremlin in the form the Kremlin finds acceptable."
Many Russians, particularly among the older generations, are squeamish about the youth groups. They have seen political heroes rise and fall, and many remain suspicious of the extreme language they hear shouted on the street.
"I don't know what they're really up to, but what they're doing is a tone higher than normal. The wording is too sharp. They're insulting," said Nadezhda Bukhenskaya, a 55-year-old university professor who wandered past a recent Nashi demonstration, then stopped and frowned. "Were they brought into politics by somebody else, or are they doing it by themselves?"
Talking to Nashi members offers a sample of the kaleidoscope of fears that swirl in Putin's Russia. An alleged U.S. plot to infiltrate politics, get hold of natural resources and shatter mighty Russia into smaller, more easily managed countries is a recurring theme.
"We're here to protect the sovereignty of our country," said Zaur Aminov, a 20-year-old economics student and Nashi leader who moved among thousands of other students at a recent pro-Putin rally at the edge of Red Square.
Asked who is threatening Russian sovereignty, the answer came quickly: "The American State Department."
Most of the recent recruits are neophytes; often, they are unsophisticated youths from the provinces who are unable to articulate why they are chanting in the streets of Moscow.
"My boyfriend was a member, and I joined him for one of the actions and I thought it was cool," said a teenage girl with a pierced lip, tarry mascara and blond hair that kept sliding into her eyes. Another protest, at the Georgian Embassy, had just broken up.
"What are you talking about? You should say you're worried about the fate of the country," hissed the young man at her side, who'd slipped the headphones off his ears to join the conversation.
The Kremlin and Nashi often try to downplay their relationship. But the youth group takes much of its funding from the Presidential Chamber, a board of hand-picked private citizens established by Putin. The group's website explains its mission as "attracting citizens and public organizations to the realization of state policy."
